Close-up shot of 'flower' on Mars

The Curiosity Robot (NASA) takes close-up photos of minerals with unique shapes on Mars, including ones that look like flowers.

The minerals are flower-like and circular on the surface of Mars.

NASA's Curiosity robot photographed a strange object on the Martian surface on February 25, or the 3,397 Mars day of the mission. Whether it looks like a flower or an organic object, studies confirm it is a mineral mass, with a delicate structure made up of minerals precipitated from water.

Curiosity has seen similar structures before. These are called diagenetic crystal clusters. Diagenetic means the recombination or rearrangement of minerals, and these structures are composed of three-dimensional crystalline clusters, which are likely to form from a combination of minerals.

According to Abigail Fraeman, Curiosity project scientist, the previously seen structures are made of sulfate salts. Research shows that they were initially inlaid in the rock, then the rock eroded over time. Meanwhile, these mineral clusters appear to be resistant to wear.

Another name for this type of structure is concretion. The Opportunity robot once photographed unique blocks of fruit that were nicknamed "blueberries" because they were round and small. In the February 25 image taken by Curiosity, circular aggregates are also next to the flower-like structure.

The team in charge of Curiosity named the flower-shaped mineral "Brunk Salt". To capture this close-up, they used the robot's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) tool. This photographic tool is an upgraded version of the magnifying glass that geologists usually carry when doing fieldwork. MAHLI's close-up images help reveal the minerals and textures of the Martian rock surface.