NASA finds multi-billion-year-old 'coral' on Mars

https://www.livescience.com/space/mars/nasa-finds-multi-billion-year-old-coral-on-mars

20•geox•6mo ago

Comments

dailyanchovy•6mo ago

* coral shaped rock

CommenterPerson•6mo ago

Yes. Also "Live science.com finds multi-billion year old click bait in NASA report".

lutusp•6mo ago

> * coral shaped rock

The technical term is "dendritic". It's sufficiently distant from nature to avoid suggesting a living organism.

tocs3•6mo ago

Are there examples of non-life formations like this on Earth? What are they called (how can I see some)?

Lichtso•6mo ago

Could be formed by viscous fingering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdwSMytC7y4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffman%E2%80%93Taylor_instabi...

tocs3•6mo ago

I certainly see the dendritic nature of the rock but I am wondering if there are rocks found on Earth that look he same. Most of the examples of that sort of thing are more 2D patterns.

Just some images of what I am talking about: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=dindrite+rock&t=ffab&ia=images&iax...

metalman•6mo ago

could be formed by something like a stromatilite(s), which are presumed to be the most ancient life forms to 1 leave macro fosils, and 2 are an existing species today or just some blobby rock's in any case, it's one more reason to go to mars, other than of course we dont realy have anywhere else to go, and with 9 billion people side eyeing each other, were going

andrewflnr•6mo ago

I think I've seen similar textures on cave walls. But it's basically a diffusion-limited aggregation shape. A good few examples here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion-limited_aggregation

mathgradthrow•6mo ago

Clickbait, there is no life on earth!

lutusp•6mo ago

> Are there examples of non-life formations like this on Earth? What are they called (how can I see some)?

The technical term is "dendritic." No suggestion of life. The next time you see a lithium-ion battery fire, you can impress your friends by saying, "Another dendritic disaster!"

This link: https://www.electronicproducts.com/what-are-dendrites-and-wh... includes a picture of dendrites in a lithium-ion battery. Not at all biological.

general1726•6mo ago

Lighting hitting into sand will create similar elongated and branching stones

https://tucson.com/news/science/this-is-what-happens-when-li...

tim333•6mo ago

I found this thing - Coral-like tafoni panel along Kaleidoscope Traverse, Wollemi National Park. https://www.instagram.com/p/DMgNKByBRkD/

not quite as coral like as the Mars stuff though

tocs3•6mo ago

This is what I was looking for.

stanmancan•6mo ago

Original title is clickbait.

"NASA finds another coral-like rock on mars"

bnrdr•6mo ago

> "Curiosity has found many rocks like this one, which were formed by ancient water combined with billions of years of sandblasting by the wind," NASA representatives wrote in the statement.

To save you a click

stemlord•6mo ago

What is even the point of karma farming on hn?

HelloUsername•6mo ago

Could we change link from livescience to the source? https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia26634-curiositys-chemcam-...

Also related post from the same day: NASA's Curiosity picks up new skills https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44790271

lutusp•6mo ago

I wish there was a scale that quantifies the degree to which an article headline struggles to attract clicks at the expense of accuracy. Looking further, I find that the JPL source article (https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia26634-curiositys-chemcam-...) used a similar headline, perhaps a bit less click-baity.

I grant that the term "dendritic," which conveys the intended meaning without sensationalism, might be too technical for a wide audience. But "dendritic" doesn't suggest a living organism to the degree that "Shaped Like Coral" (from the JPL headline) does. And in retrospect the JPL headline begs to be turned into "... multi-billion-year-old 'coral' on Mars".

But I wait with bated breath for the next iteration, titled "Scientists Baffled By Coral Reef on Mars!"

tim333•6mo ago

It would be cool if it was coral, if maybe unlikely. Apparently rocks may have been thrown from Earth to Mars by large asteroid collisions like the one that got the dinosaurs.

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NASA finds multi-billion-year-old 'coral' on Mars

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