NASA has captured an image of a coral-like rock on Mars estimated to be several billions of years old.
The space agency’s Curiosity Rover sent back images of a small, wind-eroded rock that resembles a piece of coral reef on July 24 — the 4,609th Martian day of the rover’s mission. The rock is about an 1 inch wide.
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The Curiosity Rover has captured many images of this type of rock, according to NASA.
When liquid water still existed on Mars, it carried dissolved minerals into rock cracks, NASA said. Once the liquid dried, it left the hardened minerals behind. The “unique shapes” left today were shaped by sandblasting over billions of years, NASA said.
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A strangely shaped 2-inch rock nicknamed “Paposo” was also discovered on July 24.
Another flower-shaped rock was found in 2022.
The flower rock is also thought to have formed when mineralizing fluids traveled through conduits in the rock, according to NASA.
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The Curiosity Rover was built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is leading the mission on Mars.
Curiosity landed on Mars in 2012 after an eight-month, 352-million-mile journey. It was the largest and most capable rover ever sent to the Red Planet at the time, according to NASA.
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The rover found chemical and mineral evidence of past habitable environments on Mars early in its mission and has explored about 22 miles of the planet.
Curiosity continues to collect samples and gather data from a time when the planet could have been home to microbial life, according to NASA.
