{"id":332660,"date":"2025-08-10T08:20:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T08:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/332660\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T08:20:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T08:20:21","slug":"nasa-curiosity-rover-captures-photos-of-coral-like-rocks-on-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/332660\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA Curiosity Rover Captures Photos of Coral-Like Rocks on Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a>This photo was captured by the Mars Curiosity rover on July 24. <\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover has captured photographs of a rock on Mars that closely resembles coral found on Earth.<\/p>\n

Two objects were discovered on July 24 inside Gale Crater, both are small, pale rock shaped by wind erosion. Despite their appearance, they are not biological. In a statement<\/a>, NASA highlighted one of the rock\u2019s intricate branching structures in a black-and-white photo taken by Curiosity\u2019s Remote Micro Imager. The object measures roughly 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) across.<\/p>\n

\"Close-up<\/a>On the same day, Curiosity also found another rock that closely resembles coral on Earth. <\/p>\n

\u201cCuriosity has found many small features like this one, which formed billions of years ago when liquid water still existed on Mars,\u201d NASA wrote earlier this week. \u201cWater carried dissolved minerals into rock cracks and later dried, leaving the hardened minerals behind. Eons of sandblasting by the wind wore away the surrounding rock, producing the unique shapes seen today.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the same day, July 2, Curiosity stumbled across a similar coral-like rock and used its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), which is a camera on the end of its robotic arm, to get a view of the wind-eroded rock. Live Science notes<\/a> that the rock was nicknamed \u201cPaposo\u201d by the science team operating the rover. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>In 2022, Curiosity came across this flower-like rock, also in Gale Crater, which had been beaten into an unusual shape over millions of years. NASA describes it as a \u201ccommon process\u201d on Mars.<\/p>\n

The rover, which landed on Mars in 2012, continues its mission in the 96-mile-wide (154 km) Gale Crater. Operated by NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, Curiosity is searching for evidence that Mars was once capable of supporting life. To date, it has traveled about 22 miles (35 kilometers), stopping frequently to drill into rocks, collect samples, and conduct analysis.<\/p>\n

Space.com reports<\/a> that the 13-year-old rover is continuing to adapt to survive by receiving remote fixes and changing its driving style. New software upgrades allow it to multitask, so it can turn itself off early once it has finished its daily errands. <\/p>\n

\"Black<\/a>This photo, taken on July 26, shows the tracks of Curiosity as it was relaying data to a Mars orbiter satellite. By multitasking, it will get to rest for longer periods. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were more like cautious parents earlier in the mission,\u201d says Reidar Larsen, a flight systems engineer at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, who led the team behind the new capabilities. \u201cIt\u2019s as if our teenage rover is maturing, and we\u2019re trusting it to take on more responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Its findings so far include evidence of long carbon chains in 3.7-billion-year-old rocks and indications that the planet once had a functioning carbon cycle \u2014 two signs that ancient Mars may have been habitable.<\/p>\n

Image credits:<\/strong> NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This photo was captured by the Mars Curiosity rover on July 24. NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover has captured photographs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[119320,790,119321,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-332660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-curiosityrover","9":"tag-mars","10":"tag-marscuriosityrover","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115003498630168790","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}