What kind of extraterrestrial world is Mars, and is there extraterrestrial life there? This has always been a topic that human beings are exploring, and I believe you and I are more concerned, because every time there is heavy news about Mars, the number of clicks will immediately explode.
Now, on the distant Martian ground, there are already three mars rovers belonging to humans, Curiosity, Perseverance and Zhu Rong, and it is believed that in the near future, there may be more human rovers, and human colonization of Mars is becoming more and more likely.
The longest stay on the surface of Mars is the American Curiosity rover, Curiosity successfully landed on the edge of Gale Crater on August 6, 2012, and Curiosity is still in good condition 10 years later, continuing to take pictures, continue to explore, and continue to walk.
The only regret is that curiosity's six wheels are not very strong, and there are many holes in the raised rocks on the road, which is a design problem, but there is no way, curiosity can only drive forward hard, but it is no problem to continue to drive for tens of kilometers.
Over the past decade, Curiosity has been driving from the edge of Gayle Crater to the center, and due to the roughness of the road, Curiosity has taken many "detours", bypassing a sea of black sand, and also bypassing many cliffs, and once stood on the cliffs.
On February 25, 2022, after traveling 27.33 kilometers, Curiosity suddenly spotted "a flower" on a slope, which was very tiny, only a few centimeters wide and a few centimeters high, and looked a bit like an underwater coral.
From the photo, its outer surface is covered with yellow sand, which seems to be made of yellow sand, what is such a strange thing? Although it looks very similar to an organism, it is not a truly living flower, but is actually a "mineral flower".
In fact, there are a large number of "mineral flowers" on the surface of Mars, and "mineral flowers" are quite common throughout the Martian landscape, but only because it is too small to attract enough attention from Curiosity, and this time it was accidentally discovered by Curiosity.
On February 25, the 3,397 Martian days when Curiosity arrived on Mars, Curiosity used a handheld lens imager (MAHLI) to take pictures on a slope on Mount Sharp, and accidentally spotted the "mineral flower" under its feet, and to show more detail, Curiosity took extraordinary photos with a magnifying glass.
NASA experts also deliberately gave "mineral flower" an interesting name - "black thorn plum salt", "mineral flower" is actually a type of adult rock features, we know that ancient Mars once had a large amount of flowing water, and this type of diagenetic rock is precipitated by minerals brought by flowing water.
In fact, there are also rocks on Earth that are very similar to the Martian "mineral flower", which have a branch shape, or are dendritic, and their formation is the same, which is precipitated by minerals brought by running water.
The "mineral flower" on Mars also proves once again that ancient Mars once had a large lake, Gale Crater was once a lake, life may be rejuvenated in this lake, but unfortunately, with the disappearance of the Martian magnetic field, the Martian atmosphere and water are taken away by the solar wind, leaving only a barren desert.
The study of the Martian "mineral flower" can let us figure out when the Martian lake finally disappeared. It allows us to understand the complex hydrological history inside Gale Crater.
Curiosity has also taken a lot of strange rock features before, and after seeing the photos sent back by Curiosity, some people even suspect that there has been life on Mars, otherwise these strange rock features cannot be explained, but in fact, it is Martian rocks, naturally formed.
In August 2014, Curiosity used a mast camera to photograph a rock that resembled a human "femur," which sparked heated discussions, and some even thought it was a fossilized skeleton of a Martian, when in fact it was naturally formed, specifically by running water for a long time.
In 2015, the Curiosity rover took a photo of a "ruin", which seems to be the remains of the collapse of the house, the walls crisscrossing and separating multiple independent "small rooms", but the entire "ruin" covers an area of less than 1 square meter, and some people suspect that the short Martians have lived here.
In fact, this is a typical rock wreckage after sun and wind erosion, the internal composition of the rock is different, the degree of toughness is different, when the brittle part is eroded by the wind, leaving a hard part, so it forms a more strange landscape.
In short, the "one flower" in the Gale impact crater on Mars is actually a kind of diagenetic, not organic matter, precipitated by minerals brought by flowing water.
Now, the Curiosity rover has reached the highest point of Mount Sharp, and the field of vision will become more open, which is believed to bring us greater surprises. Interesting and informative scientific content, please pay attention to the only WeChat public account: Interesting Exploration