JAKARTA – Mars is a planet full of rocks of all shapes and sizes. NASA’s rover, Curiosity, has just given an incredible new look to two rocks in between.
Curiosity has been exploring Mars since August 2012, and since then, it has uploaded more than 443,000 images. Two very interesting ones were uploaded on November 15th. In this photo taken with Curiosity’s Right Navigation Camera, the rover shows a pair of rocks hanging from the surface of Mars.
The one on the other has a well-defined rounded tip with an incline of dirt and small rocks forming on it. This is one of the more uniquely shaped rocks ever seen, and it shows how diverse Martian rocks are.
As for the second photo, the first image shows the second rock to the right, but it was mostly cropped out by Curiosity’s camera. Luckily, the rock is fully displayed in the second image shown above.
It has an elongated shape, a distinct curve with a point in the middle, and casts a dark shadow on the ground below. This is a completely different shape compared to a rock just a few meters away, and acts as a great example of the variety of rocks found on the Red Planet.
How do these rocks get their shape? Who knows! They could be the result of old space rocks hitting the planet, billions of years of sandstorms, or a myriad of other things.
What is certain, however, is that they are just two of the seemingly endless rock formations on Mars. It may not be a good home for humans, but as far as rocks go, Mars is the place to be.
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