The Curiosity spacecraft discovered that little stone on February 24. Mars’ “flower” the size of a very small coin, like our former dime, and the globular pieces next to it were probably created in the distant past, according to NASA, when billions of years ago water-borne minerals literally “cemented” the rock.
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| Gale is an impact crater on the surface of Mars, formed more than 3.5 billion years ago. Its diameter is 154 km and its depth is about four kilometers. At its center is a 4.5 km high mountain called Aeolis Mons. On August 6, 2012, NASA Curiosity landed in the northwestern part of the crater on the Aeolis Palus. |
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Rover Curiosity took a picture of a small stone arrangement in February using the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a camera located at the end of its robotic arm. The image, released by NASA, shows a close look at a “flower-like element,” according to the US Space Agency.
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“Thanks to the carts, we have previously been able to see a number of strange features on the surface of Mars – stones eroded by erosion that reminded us of figures, human bones or animals. And now a flower is added. It shows us that if you give geological processes enough time and the whole planet ‘to play’, hard-to-believe formations can form, “commented geologist Petr Brož from the Geophysical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.
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The finding is similar to other small formations the vehicle has seen in the past. Another American rover, Opportunity, has uncovered Martian “blueberries”, small mineral balls that testify to once-watery soil on the red planet, CNN said.
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Each photograph that Curiosity takes and shares helps scientists compile a chronology of the presence of water in the crater.
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“We’ve seen similar-looking features since the process of diagenesis (summary of processes changing the mineral composition, structure and texture of the sediment in the period, beginning with its deposition and ending with either metamorphosis of the sediment or its weathering in surface conditions – pozn. red.)but this dendritic shape is especially beautiful, “said planetary scientist Abigail Fraeman, project representative for Curiosity.
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At the end of this year, Curiosity will celebrate a significant milestone: the tenth anniversary of operating on Mars. The spacecraft landed on the red planet on August 6, 2012. The mission aims to find out if Mars was ever habitable for microbial life.
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The car-sized rover set the stage for a follower named Perseverance and the Ingenuity helicopter, which is currently exploring Crater Lake, 3,700 kilometers away, and will eventually transport samples to Earth through future missions.
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Oxygen and methane on Mars
It is worth noting that, for example, in 2019, NASA experts examined the data of the Curiosity vehicle and found that the level of oxygen on the red planet was unexpected. Scientists have detected unexplained changes in the amount of this vital gas element in the atmosphere, as it can sometimes be almost a third more than usual in the air.
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In the same year, for the first time, it was confirmed for the first time from an independent source that there was methane on the surface of Mars, which is considered a possible sign of the presence of living organisms.
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According to a study published by the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics in Rome in the journal Nature Geoscience, the presence of methane is documented by measurements from the European satellite Mars Express. This confirmed Curiosity’s earlier findings.
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