NASA’s Curiosity Rover has recently discovered a mysterious metal object on Mars during its mission to explore the red planet. The object appears to be a meteorite, and is believed to be made of iron-nickel alloy. Scientists are currently analyzing the object to gain more insight into its origin and composition. The discovery of the object is a major breakthrough for the mission and could potentially lead to more discoveries in the future.
NASA’s Curiosity rover has encountered a strange metal rock on Mars that could allow scientists to glimpse the Red Planet’s ancient past.
The rock, named Cacao, is about a foot in diameter and appears to be an iron-nickel meteorite, according to the US Space Agency.
It was discovered in the “sulfate unit” — a region on Mars’ Mount Sharp, the agency noted in a blog post about the discovery.
Nasa shared a high-resolution image of the rock composed of about 20 different individual photos taken by the rover.
One of the images is a close-up of cacao as viewed through Curiosity’s ChemCam instrument.
This shows a portion of the meteorite targeted by the ChemCam instrument’s laser.
Nasa noted that this laser analysis involves zapping rocks and examining the resulting vapor to learn more about the rock’s composition.
The metallic hue of the rock can be seen as it contrasts with the arid, rust-colored landscape of the red planet.
“Rocks. Rocks. Rocks. Rocks. Rocks. Rocks. METEORITE!” “It’s not uncommon to find meteorites on Mars — in fact I’ve done it a few times! But a change of scenery is always nice,” the official Twitter comment said. Curiosity rover account.
Nasa suspects that the rock’s location likely had a “large crater” in the ancient past.
“Over time, erosion and other forces smooth the area around it, carving away all but the hardest material,” said another tweet in response to a user asking for evidence of an impact.
The Curiosity rover has reportedly encountered several such strange rocks during its decades-long exploration of the Red Planet.
In 2016, it found the “Egg Rock,” also known as the “Golf Ball,” and in 2014, it stumbled upon another 7-foot-long meteorite that the Curiosity team dubbed “Lebanon.”
In early 2005, the Opportunity Rover made the discovery of the Heat Shield Rock, a meteorite that was the first such rock ever identified on another planet’s surface.
In general, such metallic meteorites that land on Earth’s surface tend to rust in a short span of geologic time, but due to low levels of oxygen and moisture on Mars, these space rocks can remain shiny for millions of years.
“There is no way to date these. But it could have been here for millions of years!” pointed out the rover’s Curiosity Twitter account of the new discovery.
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