By Tim Binnall
NASA's Mars Curiosity rover photographed a puzzling rock that sports a series of strange spikes protruding from it. The odd find was reportedly made earlier this month as the exploratory scientific vehicle was roaming around the Red Planet's Gale crater. Highlighting the wondrous find on social media, prominent astrobiologist Nathalie A. Cabrol marveled that "in 20 years of studying Mars, that's the most bizarre rock I have ever seen" and then mused that "I cannot wait to have a microscopic image" of the unusual specimen.
While some observers online theorized that the peculiar rock could possibly be a bone or perhaps the remnants of a tree, Cabrol indicated that it is unlikely to be quite that exotic and posited that the "stunning effect" was the "remains of ripples after lots of erosion." When the astrobiologist subsequently received another image of the oddity that was taken by the rover's ChemCam, her hypothesis was confirmed. The answer to the mystery, she explained, is that the spikes are "resistant rippled mudflat sediments" which she called "very, very cool!"