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Bruce Murray Space Image Library

A coral-like rock on Mars

A coral-like rock on Mars
A coral-like rock on Mars NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used the Remote Micro Imager, part of its ChemCam instrument, to view this wind-eroded rock shaped like a piece of coral on July 24, 2025. When Mars had abundant liquid water on its surface billions of years ago, that water likely carried dissolved minerals into rock cracks that later dried, leaving the hardened minerals behind. Over eons, wind and blowing sand wore away the surrounding rock, leaving behind minerals like these. NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/CNRS/IRAP/IAS/LPG