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NDTV
6 hours ago
- Science
- NDTV
NASA's Curiosity Rover Spots Coral-Shaped Rock On Mars
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover recently sent back black and white images of a rock on the Martian surface that looks remarkably like a piece of coral. According to the US space agency, the light colored, wind-eroded rock was found in the Gale Crater, which is a large impact basin on Mars. The rock is about 1-inch-wide (2.5 centimetres) and features intricate branches - just like a coral typically found at the bottom of the ocean. According to NASA, the recently discovered coral-like rock is believed to be a billion years old. The colourless image of the rock was taken by Curiosity's Remote Micro Imager - a high-resolution telescopic camera that is mounted on the rover. "Curiosity has found many small features like this one, which formed billions of years ago when liquid water still existed on Mars," NASA said in a press note. "Water carried dissolved minerals into rock cracks and later dried, leaving the hardened minerals behind. Eons of sandblasting by the wind wore away the surrounding rock, producing the unique shapes seen today," the space agency explained. "This common process, seen extensively on Earth, has produced fantastic shapes on Mars, including a flower-shaped rock," the statement continued. Previously, NASA's Curiosity rover discovered a similar-looking object last month. Nicknamed "Paposo", the strangely-shaped rock measures about 2 inches (5 cm). It is a tiny, flower-shaped object that the rover photographed in Gale Crater. Notably, Curiosity landed on Mars in 2012. The rover's mission, led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is to scan the Martian surface for any signs that it was habitable at any point in the distant past. According to LiveScience, so far, Curiosity has traversed roughly 35 kilometres of the 154 km crater. Its path is meandering and slow, because it has to stop to drill into rocks, collect samples and gather data. So far, there is no definitive evidence of life on Mars. However, ongoing and future missions will continue to explore the Red Planet's habitability and potential for life.
Time of India
11 hours ago
- Science
- Time of India
Mars just got weirder: Curiosity rover spots coral-shaped rock formed by ancient water
It looks like coral from Earth's oceans but it's sitting on Mars. On 24 July, NASA's Curiosity rover captured an image of a tiny, oddly shaped rock inside Gale Crater. The one-inch-wide object, though clearly a rock, has delicate, branching structures that make it resemble coral typically found in marine reefs back home. NASA released the image on 4 August, taken using the rover's Remote Micro Imager, a telescopic, high-resolution camera mounted on Curiosity's robotic arm. The object isn't alive, of course. But it's telling us something critical. Productivity Tool Zero to Hero in Microsoft Excel: Complete Excel guide By Metla Sudha Sekhar View Program Finance Introduction to Technical Analysis & Candlestick Theory By Dinesh Nagpal View Program Finance Financial Literacy i e Lets Crack the Billionaire Code By CA Rahul Gupta View Program Digital Marketing Digital Marketing Masterclass by Neil Patel By Neil Patel View Program Finance Technical Analysis Demystified- A Complete Guide to Trading By Kunal Patel View Program Productivity Tool Excel Essentials to Expert: Your Complete Guide By Study at home View Program Artificial Intelligence AI For Business Professionals Batch 2 By Ansh Mehra View Program 'Curiosity has found many rocks like this one, which were formed by ancient water combined with billions of years of sandblasting by the wind,' NASA said in its official statement. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Villas For Sale in Dubai Might Surprise You Villas In Dubai | Search Ads Get Rates Undo Not the first strange find This isn't the first time Curiosity has come across formations like this. Similar flower-shaped and reef-like objects have been spotted before in Gale Crater, suggesting Mars has a long and complicated water history. The newly discovered rock, along with another called 'Paposo', measuring about two inches across and also found in July—is thought to have formed when Mars was a much wetter world. The process is surprisingly familiar: water carrying dissolved minerals moved through tiny cracks in rock, eventually drying out and leaving hardened mineral veins behind. Over time, strong Martian winds eroded the surrounding rock but left those veins exposed, resulting in the coral-like shapes we see today. Live Events 'This common process, seen extensively on Earth, has produced fantastic shapes on Mars, including a flower-shaped rock,' NASA added. Evidence of a watery past While the planet today is dry and cold, findings like these strengthen the belief that Mars once had liquid water—and a lot of it. Ancient rivers, lakes, and possibly even oceans may have existed, changing the landscape in ways scientists are still working to understand. 'Water carried dissolved minerals into rock cracks and later dried, leaving the hardened minerals behind,' NASA explained. The agency also pointed to recent images of geological structures nicknamed 'spiderwebs,' captured in June, as further evidence. These intricate ridges echo patterns found in the new coral-like rock and hint at long-term underground water activity. A slow, steady climb up Mount Sharp Curiosity has been exploring Mars since it landed in Gale Crater in 2012. The crater itself is a massive impact basin, about 154 kilometres wide, located between the planet's southern highlands and northern plains. The rover's main goal is to study rock layers, look for signs of habitability, and track Mars' environmental history. It's made progress, slowly and methodically, covering over 35 kilometres in 13 years. That pace is intentional—Curiosity stops frequently to drill, analyse soil, and transmit data back to Earth. Today, it's navigating the lower slopes of Mount Sharp, a five-kilometre-tall mountain rising from the crater floor. In this region, the rover is currently studying boxwork formations—a network of ridges believed to be the result of underground water shaping rock over time. 'Remarkably, the boxwork patterns show that even in the midst of this drying, water was still present underground, creating changes seen today,' NASA said. New tricks for an ageing Rover Thirteen years in, Curiosity is still working but not without challenges. Its wheels are worn. Its mechanical systems have aged. And its power supply driven by the decay of plutonium in a multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator is slowly fading. To keep the mission going, engineers have adapted. Through software updates, they've taught the rover to multitask, saving energy and time. 'We were more like cautious parents earlier in the mission,' said Reidar Larsen, a flight systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 'It's as if our teenage rover is maturing, and we're trusting it to take on more responsibility.' One of the key upgrades? Curiosity can now finish its daily tasks and shut itself down early to conserve power. That might mean just 10 or 20 minutes saved per day, but over time it adds up. 'Together, these measures are doing their job to keep Curiosity as busy as ever,' NASA said. Curiosity has revealed more about Mars than anyone expected in 2012. It has uncovered carbon chains dating back 3.7 billion years, found strong evidence of a past carbon cycle, and mapped areas where microbial life might once have existed. The discovery of the coral-like rock may not prove life ever existed on Mars, but it adds to the growing pile of geological clues pointing to a once-habitable environment. And as long as the rover keeps moving, more secrets will likely follow.
New York Post
15 hours ago
- Science
- New York Post
NASA's Curiosity rover captured images of ‘coral' rock on Mars that signify water existed on the planet
There might've been life on Mars after all. Although it resembles a coral typically found at the bottom of the ocean, it was a piece of rock that a NASA spacecraft — Curiosity rover — recently discovered on Mars that was supposedly formed a billion years ago. 3 The NASA spacecraft — Curiosity rover — has captured images that indicated life has existed on Mars. Nasa Advertisement 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. 3 The black and white images the telescopic camera, also known as the Curiosity's Remote Micro Imager, has captured. NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/CNRS/IRAP/IAS/LPG Advertisement That same camera, also known as the Curiosity's Remote Micro Imager, has reportedly captured similar-looking objects in the past, signifying that the planet had a watery past. This is because these objects formed 'billions of years ago when liquid water still existed on the Red Planet. Water carried dissolved minerals into rock cracks and later dried, leaving the hardened minerals behind,' as explained by NASA in a recent statement. 'This common process, seen extensively on Earth, has produced fantastic shapes on Mars, including a flower-shaped rock,' the statement continued. 3 The coral-like rock indicates that Mars had a watery past because 'Water carried dissolved minerals into rock cracks and later dried, leaving the hardened minerals behind,' NASA said. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Advertisement These discoveries give hope that there might've been life on Mars after all. NASA's Curiosity has been busy this summer. Back in June, it captured images of a geological structure — which have been nicknamed 'spiderwebs' due to their insect-like pattern of ridges. Similarly to the coral rock, these 'spiderwebs' also indicate that Mars once had water on it that hardered. 'The images and data being collected are already raising new questions about how the Martian surface was changing billions of years ago,' NASA said in a previous statement. Advertisement 'The Red Planet once had rivers, lakes, and possibly an ocean. Although scientists aren't sure why, its water eventually dried up and the planet transformed into the chilly desert it is today.' 'Remarkably, the boxwork patterns show that even in the midst of this drying, water was still present underground, creating changes seen today,' NASA said. 'Eons of sandblasting by Martian wind wore away the rock but not the minerals, revealing networks of resistant ridges within.'
