Space
Curiosity Rover Spotted A Mars' Rock That May Be A Meteorite
Elaine Hannah
First Posted: Jan 20, 2017 04:40 AM EST
NASA's Curiosity rover found a rock, which the astronomers dubbed it as "Ames Knob." The rock may be a meteorite that likely fell from space.
Space.com reports that the rock is a small, dark-gray spot, which is quite unusual with the reddish rock and dirt surrounding the surface of Mars. The astronomers zoomed the rock with a Curiosity's laser-firing spectrometer, referred to as ChemCam, to identify its composition.
NASA spokesman Guy Webster from Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said that one can see the three spots in the image of Ames Knob where the ChemCam laser zapped the target. The photo of the rock was captured on Jan. 12, 2017, while the rover was exploring Mount Sharp.
Based on the ChemCam, the rock or the Ames Knob is an iron-nickel meteorite. It is formed from the core of an asteroid. Webster said that the object's moniker comes from a list of places around Bar harbor, Maine, which is the naming convention for the region where Curiosity is currently working.
The discovered rock is about 4 inches wide and 5.5 inches long. This is the fourth space rock found by Curiosity rover on Mars. Most of the rocks that were found on Mars were made of iron. On the other hand, on Earth, 95 percent of meteorites are stony. The reason for this might be the differences in how the Martian and terrestrial environments erode rocky and metallic meteorites. Another thing could be that it is tougher to pick out a rock on the rugged terrain of Mars, according to New Scientist.
Roger Wiens, the ChemCam principal investigator from Los Alamos national laboratory in New Mexico, said that the meteorites found by Curiosity could help them in their quest. They hoped that the meteorites will be able to tell them some information about the Mars environment. These include whether they fell on land or in water, or how dense the atmosphere was when they fell.
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First Posted: Jan 20, 2017 04:40 AM EST
NASA's Curiosity rover found a rock, which the astronomers dubbed it as "Ames Knob." The rock may be a meteorite that likely fell from space.
Space.com reports that the rock is a small, dark-gray spot, which is quite unusual with the reddish rock and dirt surrounding the surface of Mars. The astronomers zoomed the rock with a Curiosity's laser-firing spectrometer, referred to as ChemCam, to identify its composition.
NASA spokesman Guy Webster from Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said that one can see the three spots in the image of Ames Knob where the ChemCam laser zapped the target. The photo of the rock was captured on Jan. 12, 2017, while the rover was exploring Mount Sharp.
Based on the ChemCam, the rock or the Ames Knob is an iron-nickel meteorite. It is formed from the core of an asteroid. Webster said that the object's moniker comes from a list of places around Bar harbor, Maine, which is the naming convention for the region where Curiosity is currently working.
The discovered rock is about 4 inches wide and 5.5 inches long. This is the fourth space rock found by Curiosity rover on Mars. Most of the rocks that were found on Mars were made of iron. On the other hand, on Earth, 95 percent of meteorites are stony. The reason for this might be the differences in how the Martian and terrestrial environments erode rocky and metallic meteorites. Another thing could be that it is tougher to pick out a rock on the rugged terrain of Mars, according to New Scientist.
Roger Wiens, the ChemCam principal investigator from Los Alamos national laboratory in New Mexico, said that the meteorites found by Curiosity could help them in their quest. They hoped that the meteorites will be able to tell them some information about the Mars environment. These include whether they fell on land or in water, or how dense the atmosphere was when they fell.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone