Nasa finds strange rock on Mars that looks just like a flower

NASA’s Curiosity rover has discovered a strange rock on Mars that looks just like a flower or a piece of coral here on Earth.

The special rock is said to be a mineral formation and water is thought to have played a role in its creation.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSSThe small flower-like structure was spotted on Mars[/caption]

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSSIt’s about the size of a penny[/caption]

The scientific name for the flower-like object is a ‘diagenetic crystal cluster’.

Nasa has seen formations like this before on Mars.

Diagenetic refers to how the crystals that form the structure have been rearranged.

Curiosity deputy project scientist Abigail Fraeman wrote on Twitter: “A beautiful new microscopic image from @MarsCuriosity shows teeny, tiny delicate structures that formed by mineral precipitating from water.”

She added a penny to an image she tweeted to show just how tiny the flower really is.

Fraeman continued: “We’ve seen structures like these before, most prominently all the way back at Pahrump Hills.

“There, the features were made of salts called sulfates.”

Pahrump Hills is a sedimentary region on Mars at the base of Mount Sharp.

It’s said to have formed in the presence of water.

The newly discovered ‘flower’ would have been part of a rock that eroded away and left the pretty structure behind.

The structure itself is said to be very strong and resistant to erosion.

Some scientists refer to these structures as concretions.

Concretions can come in other shapes including small spheres.

Nasa’s Curiosity team have called the ‘Mars flower’ the ‘Blackthorn Salt’.

In other news, Nasa has revealed a stunning image of an unusual ‘space triangle’ it was able to capture with the Hubble Space Telescope.

Elon Musk has long been vocal about his ambitions for colonizing Mars – here’s everything we know about his plan.

And, astronomers have observed a red giant star dying in real-time for the first time ever.