Space and Physics
PUBLISHED
9
One cannot but be amazed by the incredible landscapes that the robotic population of Mars has discovered on their travels. Certain aspects of the Red Planet, like its blue sunset, are totally alien to us but many others are quite familiar. Some are too familiar, like seeing "snakes" in its rock formations and even spotting balancing boulders.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.One of the latest images from NASA’s Perseverance delivers a double geological curiosity for our delight. It spotted a little boulder balancing over a much bigger rock, a bit like a cairn, and in the foreground, an eroded layered cliff shows what looks like the head of a snake.
The anaconda-like head wouldn’t be amiss among the “pyramids” of Cydonia but several thousand kilometers east. The formation is among the quintessential structures that Perseverance has observed so far. The stratified rocks are from the time water was flowing into Jezero crater; water that created the river delta that the industrious robot is now studying, hoping to find evidence for past life on Mars.
