Astromobile Curiosity, which has been traveling the red planet since 2012, would have discovered old -year -old rocks of several billion years resembling coral which would have been formed “when liquid water still existed on Mars”.
“Curiosity has discovered many small structures like this, trained billions of years ago,” said the Jet Propulsion Labratory by press release last week, reported by “The Independent”.
Last month, on the 4608th Martian day of its mission, the Astromobile Curiosity, made a fascinating discovery on the red planet when one of its integrated general cameras has captured a particular coral-shaped rock, eroded by the wind, can be read.
Thanks to a camera at the end of its robotic arm, Mars Hand Lens Imager (Mahli), the team would have immortalized images of the rock, nicknamed “Paposo”.
NASA credit/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS
According to the team, it is the presence of water on the red planet which would have allowed the creation of these “unique forms”, while the water would have transported “minerals dissolved in the cracks of the rock, then dried up, leaving behind the hardened minerals”.
“The wind sandblasting, which lasted centuries, used the surrounding rock, creating unique forms. This current process is widely observed on earth and has also produced fantastic forms on Mars, including a flower-shaped rock, ”it can be read.
These images and the data they conceal “already raise new questions about the evolution of the Martian surface billions of years,” said NASA in writing, according to “The Independent”.