A Flower Shaped Rock on Mars

It is one of the more unusual rocks on Mars. The rock is smaller than a penny and has appendages that make it look like a flower. It would be a major discovery if the rock was a flower, but there are less spectacular explanations for its unusual structure. One theory is that the rock is a type of concretion created by minerals deposited by water in cracks or divisions in existing rock. These concretions can be harder and denser than surrounding rock, and can remain even after the surrounding rock erodes away. Crystal clusters may be to blame for the flower structure. Blackthorn Salt is similar to previously imaged Martian pebbles. The image was taken by the rover on Mars. The data and images taken of the surprising Martian rocks will be studied by scientists.

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Explanation: Globular star cluster 47 Tucanae is a jewel of the southern sky. Also known as NGC 104, it roams the halo of our Milky Way Galaxy along with some 200 other globular star clusters. The second brightest globular cluster (after Omega Centauri) as seen from planet Earth, 47 Tuc lies about 13,000 light-years away. It can be spotted with the naked-eye close on the sky to the Small Magellanic Cloud in the constellation of the Toucan. The dense cluster is made up of hundreds of thousands of stars in a volume only about 120 light-years across. Red giant stars on the outskirts of the cluster are easy to pick out as yellowish stars in this sharp telescopic portrait. Tightly packed globular cluster 47 Tuc is also home to a star with the closest known orbit around a black hole.