Space & Astronomy

Curiosity discovers metallic meteorite on Mars

By T.K. Randall
January 18, 2017

Image: Curiosity Rover
Credit: (PD) NASA/JPL-Caltech via Wikimedia Commons The object is the third meteorite found by Curiosity so far and one of at least eight found in total by NASA's Mars rovers over the years. The image was taken six days ago on January 12th.

While scientists have yet to confirm that the object is made of iron, if it is then it is likely to have formed in the core of an asteroid. Interestingly, all of the meteorites found to date on Mars have been made of iron - a stark contrast to on the Earth where most meteorites are made of rock.It isn't yet clear exactly why this should be the case however it has been speculated that it may be because metallic asteroids are simply easier to pick out against the rocky surface of Mars.

The three tiny dots on the meteorite in the photograph are thought to be from Curiosity's ChemCam laser which uses spectrometry to analyze the composition of rocks.

The results should indicate once and for all what this particular meteorite is actually made of.

Source: New Scientist

Tags: Mars, Meteorite