It looks like a flower but…Here’s the amazing picture Curiosity took on Mars

If he didn’t have a fairly clear scientific explanation, someone would scream historical discovery (and probably would anyway…) but that particular formation that Curiosity Rover Filmed on the roof Mars It’s actually surfing the web and the reason is pretty clear.

You can see it in the head and at first glance you may remember a flower, someone thinks it’s a coral or a sponge, others define it as the result of a bacterial action but It is nothing but the fruit of millions of years of erosion And water is in no way irrelevant to the amazing result. Despite its striking resemblance to a living creature, or what might be left of it, it is in fact rock formation Very common in Martian landscapes.

The image was taken on February 25 by the Curiosity rover at Aeolis Mons, near Mount Sharp, in the heart of Gale Crater. It’s a basin over 150 kilometers wide that NASA’s rover has been exploring since its arrival in 2012, which, similar to Jezero crater where the latest spacecraft is located, perseveranceIt contained a lake. There is talk of something like 4 billion years ago but it is clear that signs of water erosion and the presence of minerals are still present.

For this amazing capture, the rover’s on-board Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera, located on the turret at the end of the robotic arm, was used and was achieved by combining several single shots thanks to Integrated Focus Technology. Although the image may be misleading, the size of the rock is minuscule, in fact it is only a centimeter wide.

Integrated focus is a technology that combines multiple photos taken even on different days, to obtain a single composite result that is able to focus on every detail. The operation is performed directly on Mars by the MAHLI module and then sent back to Earth, thus simplifying the amount of total data. Below are the exact details of the particular formation.

rock concrete was called Blackthorn salt But, as mentioned above, it is a well-known formation that is defined as a group of starchy crystals. It is mainly derived from reconstitution of minerals in water and can present various forms. Those identified on the red planet have minimum dimensions (1-2 cm maximum) and can be distinguished by branched or dendritic shapes, sometimes almost spherical or slightly rounded, as can be seen in the photo in the head of nearby elements.

These formations are basically one of the confirmations of the ancient presence of water and have also been found in other regions of the planet. The first evidence dates back to 2004 by Opportunity, who photographed some spherical formations of the same formation in the Meridiani Planum region.