NASA’s Curiosity rover is no stranger to spying on unusual rocky features after a decade of exploring the Martian surface: just a couple of months ago it even stopped and smelled flowers. Now, the rover has come across some curiously spiky ears, which send an image of a scene that would not look out of place upside down.
The “cool rock” was originally highlighted by the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute last week on Twitter, but the image was actually taken on May 15, or just 3474, according to NASA.
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Curiosity is exploring Gale Crater, and while taking pictures of strange things on Mars is a fun pastime, the image of unusual features gives scientists an idea of the weather conditions and the type of rock in certain places, offering a glimpse of the past and how these characteristics may have been formed.
According to SETI, “the spikes are most likely to be the cemented fillings of ancient fractures in a sedimentary rock. The rest of the rock was made of softer material and eroded.”
With such a fine atmosphere, more than 100 times finer than that of Earth, the Martian landscape can be a harsh place. Strong winds up to 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour), old water, and epic dust storms have sometimes influenced topography for millions of years, cutting through features like these.
The full image of the tips captured Curiosity’s MastCam on May 15th. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
Robotic scientists on Mars can send many images of rocks, but these rocks, ranging from a mysterious purple to green coating to hiding ancient water and even sticky walks, provide us with information about the history of the red planet. , its composition and sheds light on the final question: has there ever been, or could ever be, life on Mars?