Curiosity Discovers a Strange Flower-Like Rock on Mars

This week, the Curiosity rover on Mars captured a photograph of something quite appealing. While the thing in question appears to be a little flower or possibly an organic feature, the rover team concluded that it is a mineral creation with exquisite features generated by mineral precipitation from water.

Curiosity has previously seen diagenetic crystal clusters, which are similar to these structures. Diagenetic refers to mineral recombination or rearrangement, and these features are three-dimensional crystal clusters made up of a variety of minerals. These previously seen structures were formed of salts called sulfates, according to Curiosity deputy project scientist Abigail Fraeman.

According to earlier studies of similar features found on Mars, the feature was once embedded within a rock that eroded away over time. These mineral clusters, on the other hand, appear to be impervious to erosion.

Concretion is another name for these characteristics, which you may recall from the Opportunity rover, which found features nicknamed “blueberries” because they were small and spherical. In this view, you can notice circular concretions close to the flower-like feature.

This feature was discovered earlier this week by the rover scientific team and given the name ‘Blackthorn Salt.’ These close-up photographs were taken with the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI. The rover’s counterpart of the magnifying hand lens that geologists typically bring into the field is this camera. The minerals and textures in rock surfaces are shown in MAHLI’s close-up photos.

Curiosity discovered another flower-like feature in 2013, while the Spirit rover discovered rocks with knobby protuberances that were dubbed ‘cauliflower’ characteristics.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

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