NASA's Curiosity Rover Spots Coral-Shaped Rock On Mars

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover recently sent back black and white images of a rock on the Martian surface that looks remarkably like a piece of coral. According to the US space agency, the light colored, wind-eroded rock was found in the Gale Crater, which is a large impact basin on Mars. The rock is about 1-inch-wide (2.5 centimetres) and features intricate branches - just like a coral typically found at the bottom of the ocean. 

According to NASA, the recently discovered coral-like rock is believed to be a billion years old. The colourless image of the rock was taken by Curiosity's Remote Micro Imager - a high-resolution telescopic camera that is mounted on the rover. 

"Curiosity has found many small features like this one, which formed billions of years ago when liquid water still existed on Mars," NASA said in a press note. "Water 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," the space agency explained. 

"This common process, seen extensively on Earth, has produced fantastic shapes on Mars, including a flower-shaped rock," the statement continued.

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Previously, NASA's Curiosity rover discovered a similar-looking object last month. Nicknamed "Paposo", the strangely-shaped rock measures about 2 inches (5 cm). It is a tiny, flower-shaped object that the rover photographed in Gale Crater.

Notably, Curiosity landed on Mars in 2012. The rover's mission, led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is to scan the Martian surface for any signs that it was habitable at any point in the distant past.

According to LiveScience, so far, Curiosity has traversed roughly 35 kilometres of the 154 km crater. Its path is meandering and slow, because it has to stop to drill into rocks, collect samples and gather data.

So far, there is no definitive evidence of life on Mars. However, ongoing and future missions will continue to explore the Red Planet's habitability and potential for life.