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This small textured arch is found in Gale Crater on Mars, as seen by NASA’s Curiosity rover.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / LANL / Kevin M. Gill
This story is part of Welcome to mars, our series exploring the red planet.
We love to marvel at the great natural rock arches of the Earth. Well there is a tiny version on Mars and it is just as delicious. NASA’s Curiosity rover was able to observe an oddly textured rock formation that resists the forces of wind and erosion on the Red Planet.
Curiosity explores Gale Crater, home to an impressive mountain called Mount Sharp. The rover took close-up views of the delicate jagged arch last week, and citizen scientist Kevin Gill gathered the images into a mosaic view.
NASA planetary geologist Abigail Fraeman described the sight as “a particularly whimsical image of an interesting rock texture” in an update to the rover’s mission. “I continue to be blown away by the textures we see, especially the prevalence of centimeter-sized bumps and lumps sticking out of bedrock,” Fraeman said.
The rover is currently checking a transition zone between the “clay unit“(a region rich in clay minerals) and the”sulfated unit(Gypsum and Epsom salts are examples of sulphates.) Both areas hint at a potentially watery past in the region and are of interest to scientists investigating whether Mars might have once been habitable for microbial life.
The field of view of the arch footage is only about 6.5 inches (16.5 centimeters), which means the entire formation is quite small. According to planetary geologist Michelle Minitti, the delicate arch is likely made of an erosion-resistant material. Gale Crater is a dusty and windy place and the rocky landscape shows signs of it.
martian geologist Gwénaël Caravaca commented on the ark on Twitter, saying it might look like a snake, horns, or DNA stump.
Some see a snake, some see horns, some see a DNA stump, but at the moment what I see is a large RMI mosaic on this strange edifice, probably due to differential erosion on weathered rocks#chemcam @MarsCuriosity https://t.co/FyWpa85Epo
– Gwen Costuming & Cosplay … and Mars stuff ⛏ (@GCC_Cosplay) July 28, 2021
Seeing familiar shapes in random objects is a favorite pastime of Mars fans, as followers of the rover’s sister vehicle Perseverance well know from a recent sight of the humorously dubbed “ass crack rock. ”
Curiosity has been exploring Gale Crater since 2012. The arch shows that there are still many visual and geological wonders for the veteran rover to discover as it climbs the base of Mount Sharp.
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