NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Finds Rocks That Look Like Fingers

Earlier this year, NASA's Curiosity rover took a picture of something pretty enticing on the surface of Mars. SciTech Daily reported that the object looks like a little flower, but the rover team confirmed that it was just a mineral formation with delicate structures made of minerals precipitating from water.

The first time the rover spotted a flower-like structure on Mars was in 2013, and another rover named Spirit spotted previously the same structures. Now, the Curiosity rover has spotted another interesting rock formation in the form of fingers.

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Finds Rocks That Look Like Fingers — Finger-like rocks on Mars captured by NASA's Curiosity rover using the MastCam during its 3,474th Martian day (sol). NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Finger-like Rocks on Mars

According to a press release from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the Curiosity Mars rover spotted finger-like rocks on the surface of the Red Planet using its Mast Camera (MastCam). The rover captured the image on May 15, 2022, during its 3,474th Martian day, also known as a sol.

According to the JPL team, the rock formation most likely formed as groundwater trickled through rock in the ancient past and deposited mineral cement over time. After many years, the wind eroded the softer material around the cemented part when the rock was exposed to the atmosphere.

The Curiosity rover found the unique rock formation on the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain called Mount Sharp. The rover has been climbing it since 2004.

JPL has shared photos of the finger-like rock. Figure A was a close-up view and Figure B was a 3D version meant to be viewed through red-blue glasses.

NASA's JPL built the Curiosity rover to lead its mission on behalf of the American space agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. But Mail Space Science System from San Diego was the one who built the rover's MastCam.

The Curiosity rover landed on Mars in August 2012 and is currently exploring the Gale Crater. NASA has created an interactive map to allow people to trace the path that the rover has traversed since its landing almost 10 years ago.

ALSO READ : NASA Curiosity Rover Finds Odd Doorway on Mars But Geologists Crush Conspiracy Theorists' Hope It Could Lead to Extraterrestrial Life

Curiosity Rover's Surprising Discovery

With the arrival of NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars last February 2021, the space agency can now have more data about the history of the Red Planet. But it is also appropriate to look back at the accomplishments of its predecessors, which is the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover.

Perseverance is not the rival of Curiosity and doe snot mean that it will be its end. Over the past years, the Curiosity rover has made significant discoveries that added to the knowledge of the scientific community. Here are the top five discoveries that the rover has made since its landing eight years ago at the Gale crater on Mars, according to Forbes:

Gale Crater could have allowed life to thrive on the planet 3.5 million years ago.
Gale Crater has ancient lakes in the past.
Mars had an organic matter in the past that some even survived today.
There is an occasional and unexplainable methane gas spike in the Martian atmosphere.
Curiosity rover still functioned even during the strong planetary-wide dust storm.