NASA finds multi-billion-year-old 'coral' on Mars | Hacker News Reader

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

livescience.com

20 pointsgeox19 comments

* coral shaped rock

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

> * coral shaped rock

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

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!"

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

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

Could be formed by viscous fingering.

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

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

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...

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

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

Clickbait, there is no life on earth!

> 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.

Lighting hitting into sand will create similar elongated and branching stones

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

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

This is what I was looking for.

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.

> "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

What is even the point of karma farming on hn?

Original title is clickbait.

"NASA finds another coral-like rock on mars"

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