A “flower” has been found on Mars

This is probably the closest we’ll ever find to finding a flower on Mars.

During the ongoing investigation of Martian rocks at Gale Crater, the Curiosity rover came across a small surprise. This piece of rock, which looks like a piece of coral or a flower, is smaller than a coin.

Mars’ “flower” and the spherical pieces next to it “probably originated in the distant past when water-borne minerals cemented the rocks,” according to NASA.

Curiosity photographed the tiny rock arrangement on February 24 using the Mars Hand Lens Imager, a camera located at the end of its robotic arm.

The find is similar to other small elements Curiosity has found in the past, all of which formed “when mineralizing fluids flowed through channels in rocks,” the agency reports. Previously, the Opportunity spacecraft had also found ‘Mars berries’, which are tiny balls indicative of past watery soil on the Red Planet.

Every image that Curiosity takes and shares in these elements helps researchers piece together a timeline of the presence of water in the crater.

A decade of exploration

This year, Curiosity will celebrate an important event: the tenth anniversary of its founding on Mars. Curiosity landed on the red planet on August 5, 2012. Over the past decade, the crater has been explored and Mount Sharp has formed at its center.

The mission is designed to determine if Mars is habitable for microbial life. Early on, the aptly named rover discovered chemical and mineral evidence of the planet’s habitability sometime in the distant past. Since then, Curiosity has investigated the geological record to understand when Mars was most suitable to support life.

Curiosity continues to make its way through steep rocks and hills to collect rock and land samples for analysis.

The vehicle-sized rover has paved the way for the Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity helicopter, which are currently exploring the Jezero Crater, located 3,700 kilometers away, and will eventually bring the first Martian samples back to Earth with future missions. The combined efforts of these rovers could help answer the fundamental question of the possible existence of life on Mars.