整碗的火星小球

2025年6月22日

A Berry Bowl of Martian Spherules
Image Credit: NASA, JPL, Curiosity Rover

Explanation: How were these unusual Martian spherules created? Thousands of unusual gray spherules made of iron and rock and dubbed blueberries were found embedded in and surrounding rocks near the landing site of the robot Opportunity rover on Mars in 2004. To help investigate their origin, Opportunity found a surface dubbed the Berry Bowl with an indentation that was rich in the Martian orbs. The Berry Bowl is pictured here, imaged during rover’s 48th Martian day. The average size of a Martian blueberry rock is only about 4 millimeters across. By analyzing a circular patch in the rock surface to the left of the densest patch of spherules, Opportunity obtained data showing that the underlying rock has a much different composition than the hematite rich blueberries. This information contributes to the growing consensus that these small, strange, gray orbs were slowly deposited from a bath of dirty water.

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整碗的火星小球
影像提供: NASA, JPL, Curiosity Rover

说明: 这些不寻常的火星小球，到底是怎么产生的？这些由铁与岩石组成的灰色小球，成千上万的分布在机遇号火星的著陆点附近。为了探索这些昵称为小”蓝莓“的小球之起源，机会号找到了一个称为”蓝莓碗”的凹洞，并发现凹洞里有相当多的火星小球。这张”蓝莓碗”的照片，是在机遇号着陆火星后的第48个火星日所拍下的。这些小蓝莓的平均直径只有4厘米。分析周遭岩石表面上的圆形碎块与这些”小蓝莓“，机遇号的资料显示出岩石的组成与含有丰富火成岩的”小蓝莓“有相当大的差异。这些讯息强化了科学家的信念，认为这些奇怪的灰色小球是由一池脏水蒸发之后结晶出来的。