Mysterious 'ball' on Mars: Where did it come from?
NASA says that a remarkably spherical rock spotted by the Curiosity Mars rover is a sign that the Red Planet harbored water in its ancient past.
This image was taken by Mastcam: Right (MAST_RIGHT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 746 (2014-09-11 14:46:58 UTC).
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
It seems too round to be true 鈥� the Curiosity rover has found a ball-shaped object among the craggy rocks in its picture. This image was taken on Sol 746 of the rover鈥檚 mission on Mars, which so far has extended over two Earth years.
No, it鈥檚 not the leftover of a Martian baseball game and nor is it aliens. In fact, according to聽聽(who is quoting NASA) it鈥檚 a kind of rock that shows evidence of water in the ancient past.聽
Ian O鈥橬eill writes:
According to MSL scientists based at NASA鈥檚 Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., the ball isn鈥檛 as big as it looks 鈥� it鈥檚 approximately one centimeter wide. Their explanation is that it is most likely something known as a 鈥渃oncretion.鈥� Other examples of concretions have been found on the Martian surface before 鈥� take, for example, the tiny haematite concretions, or 鈥渂lueberries鈥�, observed by Mars rover Opportunity in 2004 鈥� and they were created during sedimentary rock formation when Mars was abundant in liquid water many millions of years ago.
Curiosity is聽聽鈥� its main science goal 鈥� and scientists are hoping to find more signs of habitable environments as the rover slowly prepares for the climb up the slope. Mission managers will need to be careful as the聽聽from rougher terrain than expected.
The rover already has found other evidence of water in its landing site of Gale Crater, such as this聽.
聽is the senior writer at Universe Today. She also works for Space.com, Space Exploration Network, the NASA Lunar Science Institute, NASA Astrobiology Magazine and LiveScience, among others. Career highlights include watching three shuttle launches, and going on a two-week simulated Mars expedition in rural Utah. You can follow her on Twitter@howellspace聽or contact her at聽. Follow聽.
Originally posted on .