火星上的手指狀巖石

There, just right of center, what is that? The surface of Mars keeps revealing new surprises with the recent discovery of finger-like rock spires. The small nearly-vertical rock outcrops were imaged last month by the robotic Curiosity rover on Mars. Although similar in size and shape to small snakes, the leading explanation for their origin is as conglomerations of small minerals left by water flowing through rock crevices. After these relatively dense minerals filled the crevices, they were left behind when the surrounding rock eroded away. Famous rock outcrops on Earth with a similar origin are called hoodoos. NASA's Curiosity Rover continues to search for new signs of ancient water in Gale Crater on Mars, while also providing a geologic background important for future human exploration.?

在那里，就在中間的右邊，那是什么？隨著最近發(fā)現(xiàn)的手指狀巖石尖頂，火星表面不斷顯示出新的驚喜。上個(gè)月，火星上的好奇號(hào)機(jī)器人拍攝到了這些幾乎垂直的小巖石露頭。雖然在大小和形狀上與小蛇相似，但對(duì)其起源的主要解釋是水流過(guò)巖石裂縫留下的小礦物的團(tuán)塊。當(dāng)這些相對(duì)致密的礦物填滿裂縫后，當(dāng)周圍的巖石被侵蝕掉時(shí)，它們就被留下了。地球上著名的巖石露頭有著相似的起源，被稱為胡德烏斯。美國(guó)宇航局的好奇號(hào)探測(cè)器繼續(xù)在火星蓋爾隕石坑中尋找古代水的新跡象，同時(shí)也為未來(lái)人類探索提供了重要的地質(zhì)背景。