The Curiosity rover captured a unique mineral formation in the shape of a delicate alien flower.
No flowers with petals that would grow on Mars, it is indeed a rock formation that the rover photographed on the red planet. Curiosity, on Mars for more than a year, had already encountered this type of rock (especially in 2013), called clusters of diagenetic crystals (a rearrangement of minerals) and formed by minerals precipitated from water. The rock sculpted by the winds makes 1 cm wide and is composed of arms that give it a coral look.
Abigail Fraeman, assistant scientist for the Curiosity project, explains that these previously seen features were made up of salts called sulfates, initially embedded in rock that eroded over time to give this form.