NASA Mars Curiosity Rover Spots Massive Meteorite on the Red Planet

NASA Mars Curiosity rover continues its trek across the Red Planet, continually making new discoveries. Now, the rover has spotted a massive iron meteorite called "Lebanon" and has snapped a photo of the rock to send back to Earth.

Lebanon is similar in shape and luster found on Mars by the previous generation of rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. The meteorite itself is about two yards wide, and there's a smaller piece next to the main meteorite in the foreground, which scientists have dubbed "Lebanon B."

In order to create the photo, researchers combined a series of high-resolution circular images taken by the Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) of Curiosity's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument with color and context from rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam).

The new image reveals angular shaped cavities on the surface of the rock. These cavities could be a result of preferential erosion along crystalline boundaries within the metla of the rock. The other possibility is that the cavities once contained olivine crystals, which can be found in a rare type of stony-iron meteorite called a "pallasite."

Iron meteorites aren't rare among meteorites found on Earth, but they are less common than stony meteorites. In contrast, iron meteorites dominate the ones found one Mars. This could be due to the resistance of iron meteorites to the erosion processes that occur on the Red Planet.

Currently, Curiosity is assessing ancient habitable environments and major changes in Martian environmental conditions. This could tell scientists a bit more about the past of the Red Planet.

Want to learn more about Mars exploration? You can check out NASA's website, where you can find all of the latest news about the planet.