NASA’s Curiosity rover notices a coral-like mineral formation on the surface of the Red Planet, probably made from water flowing over a rock billions of years ago
- NASA’s Curiosity rover has been in the Gale Crater on Mars since November 2011.
- He was looking for signs of ancient water believed to flow into the crater
- The last image was taken with a microscope instrument known as MAHLI
- It shows a small mineral structure, similar to a flower, that once formed in a rock
- This may be the result of dripping water through the rock formation
NASACuriosity’s rover captures an image of what looks like a coral “flower” in Gale Crater Marsbut it is actually a microscopic mineral formation.
The microscopic view of Martian sand is made with a hand lens on Mars (MAHLI), a tool for depicting minerals, textures and structures in rocks and soil on scales smaller than the diameter of human hair.
The Curiosity team confirmed that this is a “diagenetic crystal cluster” that NASA JPL experts have suggested may have been formed by minerals that precipitate from the water.
Although it looks large in the images, it is actually less than a penny and consists of three-dimensional crystal clusters made from a combination of minerals.
NASA scientists say this could tell them more about the structure of Martian soil and what the planet once looked like, including the flow of long-extinct water.
NASA’s Curiosity rover captures an image of what looks like a coral “flower” in the Gale Crater on Mars, but is actually a microscopic mineral formation
The Curiosity team confirmed that this is a “diagenetic crystal cluster” that NASA JPL experts have suggested may have been formed by minerals that precipitate from the water.
Curiosity explores Gale Crater, a dry lake bed that stretches 96 miles in diameter and includes Mount Aeolis Mons, which rises 18,000 feet above the bottom of the crater.
NASA initially chose the crater as the site of Curiosity, which landed on Mars in November 2011 due to evidence of water in the distant past.
Abigail Freiman, a Curiosity scientist, turned to Twitter to explain the unusual formation, describing it as “tiny, small, delicate structures formed by a mineral that precipitates from water.”
This is not the first time the rover has seen these formations, which are probably made of salts called sulfates, if this is the same as previous versions.
The Curiosity team confirmed that this is a “diagenetic crystal cluster” that NASA JPL experts speculate may have been formed by minerals that precipitate from water.
Although it looks large in the images, it is actually less than a penny and consists of three-dimensional crystal clusters made from a combination of minerals.
It is known as the diagenetic crystal cluster, where the diagenetic refers to the recombination of minerals, in this case probably from running water.
Studies of earlier versions have revealed that minerals that sprouted in different directions were probably embedded in a rock that eroded over time.
However, the minerals appear to be resistant to erosion, so they remain on the dusty surface of the Red Planet, NASA scientists explained.
The microscopic view of Martian sand is made with the Mars Hand Lens (MAHLI), a tool for depicting minerals, textures and structures in rocks and soil on scales smaller than the diameter of human hair.
The feature is also known as a concretion, as the versions can be seen from the rover Opportunity, which no longer works and was called “blueberries” because they are small and round.
Curiosity also discovered a similar, flower-like feature in 2013, and the Spirit rover saw rocks he called “cauliflower” because they had lumps.
The same type of blueberry-like structures seen by Opportunity can also be seen in Curiosity’s new image, next to the flower-like feature.
This feature is called “Blackthorn Salt” by NASA’s Curiosity rover team, which uses MAHLI to take a close-up view of minerals and textures.
NASA’s MARS CURIOSITY ROVER LAUNCHED IN 2011 AND IMPROVED OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE RED PLANET
Mars Mars Curiosity was originally launched from Cape Canaveral, a US Air Force station in Florida on November 26, 2011.
After embarking on a journey of 350 million miles (560 million km), the £ 1.8 billion ($ 2.5 billion) research vehicle landed just 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from its designated landing site.
After a successful landing on August 6, 2012, the rover traveled about 11 miles (18 km).
It launched on the spacecraft of the Martian Science Laboratory (MSL) and the rover makes up 23 percent of the total mission mass.
With 80 kg (180 lb) of scientific instruments on board, the rover weighs a total of 899 kg (1982 lb) and is powered by a plutonium fuel source.
The rover is 2.9 meters (9.5 feet) long, 2.7 meters (8.9 feet) wide and 2.2 meters (7.2 feet) high.
The Curiosity rover was originally intended to be a two-year information-gathering mission to help determine whether the planet can sustain life, liquid water, study the climate and geology of Mars, and has been active for more than 2,000 days.
The rover was originally intended to be a two-year information gathering mission to help determine whether the planet can sustain life, whether there is liquid water, and how to study the climate and geology of Mars.
Due to its success, the mission has been extended indefinitely and has been active for more than 2,000 days.
The rover has several scientific tools on board, including a mast that consists of two cameras and can make high-resolution images and videos in real colors.
So far, while traveling as a car-sized robot, he has stumbled upon an ancient streambed where liquid water flowed, not after discovering that billions of years ago a nearby area known as Yellowknife Bay was part of from a lake that can sustain microbial life.
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