Curiosity is carrying out its mission in Gale Crater on Mars. NASA is leading the research effort, and JPL is also operating with the help of Catch, LANL, CNES, CNRS, IRAP, IAS, and LPG. They have recently found a formation that bears some resemblance to coral and even fulgurite. In line with this, this discovery has once again raised questions about water on Mars and, in addition, about wind erosion, which, together with Martian dust storms, can shape the great red planet. Will Earth follow the same path as Mars? Read on to learn more about this great discovery.
Curiosity among all new questions
Curiosity has just come across a recent and interesting rock during its journeys in the Gale Crater on Mars. Just a little centimeters across, the tiny formation is recognizable for its amazing likness to branch corals that can be spotted living in Earth’s oceans, or a piece of fulgurite; minerals fused in the heat of a lightning hit as it slams into the ground.
Mars, of course, has no surface oceans, and the rock isn’t fulgurite, however, it is a amazing testament to the way the equal patterns repeat in several contexts throughout the Universe, from the micro-scale to the cosmic.
Everything you must know about the “strange formation”
The unique formation is, indeed, a product of a once-wet environment. Water seeping through cracks in the bedrock brought dissolved minerals, depositing it therein as the water drained away. The mineral concentrations at some point dried and hardened, begining to grow in the form of the crack it filled.
Mars may no longer have surface water, nevertheless, it does have two points that are essential: dust and wind. Its wild sandstorms can shroud the whole planet for months at a time, dramatically different from the weather here on Earth. They clean and sculpt the surface with powerful erosive force.
Close-up Captured by ChemCam
According to the report, the image of the coral-like rock was taken using the Remote Micro Imager (RMI), a component of the ChemCam instrument aboard Curiosity. ChemCam plays a key role in helping scientists study the composition and texture of rocks from a distance.
Around the same period, another rock with a similar form was observed using Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager, adding more detail to this ongoing study of Martian geology.
According to the NASA report, the ChemCam itself is the result of an international partnership– developed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, in collaboration with the French space agency CNES, the University of Toulouse, and CNRS.
“Approximately 1-inch-wide (2.5 centimeters)”
The small, approximately 1-inch-wide (2.5 centimeters) light colored, wind-eroded rock, as described by Live Science, was found in the Gale Crater, which is a large impact basin on Mars. A colorless image taken by a telescopic camera captured the familiar-looking object. Although this discovery is an exciting one — it isn’t the first of its kind to be found.
Type of mineral that are founded in Mars formations
Formations on Mars that have several types of mineral with many compositions can be the answer to this sandblasting. In the case of this coral-like rock, the sand blasted away the matrix having the deposit of sedimentary material, just leaving behind the material that filled the crack – an inverse to the original formation.
In addition, similar formations Curiosity has found takes into account weird, spindly spires and a rock that looks a bit like a flower. Other strange formations also includes a bubbly rock that resembles frogspawn, a rock that looks a bit like a shrunken face, and one that looks like a bone. Makes you wi sh you could go rock collecting on Mars, really.
