Curiosity rover finds metallic meteorite on Mars

February 3, 2023

34

NASA’s Curiosity rover has discovered one other meteorite on Mars.

The space rock is about 1 foot (0.3 meters) huge and consists primarily of iron and nickel, Curiosity staff members introduced through Twitter on Thursday (Feb. 2). And the meteorite has a reputation.

“We’re calling it ‘Cacao,'” the Curiosity staff wrote in the Twitter post (opens in new tab), which features a photograph of the rock.

Associated: 15 stunning Mars photos by NASA’s Curiosity rover

The car-sized Curiosity landed inside Mars‘ 96-mile-wide (154 kilometers) Gale Crater in August 2012, on a quest to find out if the world may have supported Earth-like life way back.

The robotic’s work over the previous decade has answered that query within the affirmative, exhibiting that Gale hosted a doubtlessly liveable lake-and-stream system within the historical previous. What’s extra, this watershed doubtless persisted for millions of years at a stretch, probably permitting time for the rise of Martian microbes.

Curiosity just isn’t a life-hunting mission, so it is not on the lookout for indicators of those microbes, in the event that they ever existed. However Curiosity’s cousin Perseverance, which landed inside a unique Mars crater in February 2021, is conducting a life search, and in addition accumulating dozens of samples for future return to Earth.

Since September 2014, Curiosity has been climbing the flanks of Mount Sharp, an enormous massif that rises about 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) into the sky from Gale’s middle.

The rover not too long ago notched a giant milestone on this trek, reaching sulfate-rich deposits that fashioned in comparatively dry circumstances. Curiosity’s observations of those rocks may assist scientists higher perceive when and the way Gale Crater, and the Purple Planet at giant, transitioned from a comparatively heat and moist place to the frigid desert it’s right this moment, mission staff members have stated.

Curiosity has pushed 18.31 miles (29.47 km) on Mars up to now, according to its mission page (opens in new tab). The rover has stumbled throughout a number of different meteorites throughout this epic off-planet journey, because the rover staff famous in a number of different photo-featuring tweets on Thursday.

“This is one other meteorite I discovered in 2016. It is known as ‘Egg Rock,’ aka the golf ball,” one Thursday Twitter post reads (opens in new tab).

“And whereas my staff calls this 7-foot-long meteorite ‘Lebanon,’ I name it THE BEAST,” another Thursday tweet states (opens in new tab).

Curiosity discovered Lebanon, or The Beast, in Could 2014, although NASA did not publicize images of the large rock till July of that 12 months. The Beast and two close by stones had been the primary meteorites that Curiosity discovered on the Purple Planet.

Mike Wall is the writer of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a guide in regards to the seek for alien life. Observe him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).