Mars Rover Snaps Image That Looks a Lot Like an Organism, Though of Course It’s Almost Certainly Not

NASA's Mars Exploration Program released an intriguing, beautiful image of what it almost certainly not a flower this week.

The space agency merged six images on Friday to create a photo of a tiny, microscopic formation that looks like it could be an organisms, but is actually created from delicate mineral crystals. According to NASA, the photo was taken at the end of the robotic arm.

The penny added for scale is shown in the image along with the penny added by the deputy project scientist.

Fraeman said that a beautiful new image from MarsCuriosity shows tiny delicate structures that were formed by mineral precipitating from water.

She went on to say that similar structures were found in the past and that they were made of salts called sulfates. According to ScienceAlert.com, the faux flowers are made of diagenetic crystal clusters. The three-dimensional crystal clusters are probably made of a combination of minerals that include the sulfates Fraeman mentioned.

Fraeman shared a 3D model of the flower created by Schmauss using the images the rover captured.

@MarsCuriosity imaged a funky looking mineral formation the other day. This is a 3D model created from 6 images taken by the MAHLI instrument.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS