NASA ’s Curiosity rover has spied a potential meteorite on Mars , which would be the third it has receive since it shoot down in August 2012 .
An figure of the tilt was snap byCuriosity ’s Mastcamon January 12 , 2017 . As remark by Bob King forUniverse Today , who first picked up the chronicle , there are three dots on the meteorite – which point it was atomize by Curiosity ’s ChemCam instrument .
" This shiny target , call ' Ames Knob ' , was noticed in late images from Curiosity , " Guy Webster , a spokesperson for NASA , recount IFLScience .
Curiosity uses its ChemCam laser to study rocks on Mars , honor the resulting vaporise stuff to see what they ’re made of . When it did this for itslast meteoritein November 2016 , called Egg Rock , it had a Ni - iron paper . And it bet fairly similar to this one , so they may have the same typography .
" [ Ames Knob ] resembles the atomic number 26 - nickel meteorite ' Egg Rock ' that Curiosity examined in November , so this target was inspected with the optical maser - provoke ChemCam mass spectrometer , " note Webster . " It yielded standardized answer . "
The fact this in vogue meteorite is moderately legato suggests it is also quite a raw meteorite , although given that Mars has a thinner atmospheric state than Earth , it may have merely receive less erosion . Thefirst meteoriteseen by Curiosity , call Lebanon and spotted in May 2014 , also had a like appearance .
This is Lebanon , the first meteorite seen by Curiosity , in May 2014 . NASA / JPL - Caltech
And this is Curiosity ’s second meteorite , Egg Rock , seen in October 2016 . NASA / JPL - Caltech
There ’s a bit of a puzzle about these meteorites , though . On Earth , 95 percent of all meteorite are stony , and only 4.4 per centum are iron . But so far on Mars , all eight meteorites project ( three by Curiosity and five by Opportunity ) have been iron .
“ Why no large stony meteorite have yet to be been found on Mars is gravel , ” compose King . “ Maybe they merely intermingle in too well with all the other rocks littering the Martian landscape . Or perhaps they erode more quickly on Mars than the metal variety . ”
At any rate , this up-to-the-minute find is no less interesting . NASA has n’t relinquish any results from the ChemCam study yet , but peradventure they ’ll be forthcoming in the futurity .
( H / T : Universe Today )
