Opportunity Spots Curious Object On Mars

EhobaX writes "Space.com is reporting that NASA's Opportunity Mars rover has come across an interesting object -- perhaps a meteorite sitting out in the open at Meridiani Planum. Initial data taken by the robot's Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) is suggestive that the odd-looking "rock" is made of metal."

Comments

Re:Meteorite?

[Stevyn]

Maybe it was. It could have come down very shallow and not made a deep impact. Then strong winds could have blown the sand around it to uncover it. If it is made of metal, then it's probably too heavy for the winds to move it much. The wavy patterns in the sand around it make me think the area gets some wind.

I'm just guessing, of course, but it's a possibility.

Re:What was their first reaction?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, the Heat Shield WAS important.

Designing re-entry shields for planets you don't know alot about ( compared to earth ) can be tricky. Undoubtably they overengineered it, and made it heavier than needed just in case.

By examining the heat shield, and the thermal damage, they can get a better feel for the physical and thermal stresses caused by a martian re entry.

This would lead to lighter, better heat shields. And since cost is proportional to weight, a lighter more effective heat shield leads to cheaper future mars missions, or allows one to cram more instruments into a probe. Either way, WIN!

They are tooling around a planet we still know little about, so it's all good.

Maybe it did leave a crater.

[i41Overlord]

Maybe the rock did leave a crater in the sand millions of years ago, and the crater got blown away by the wind, leaving the heavy rock sitting there.

Things can sit on the surface forever there. It's not like there's anyone there to say "ooh, this is shiny!" and disturb it. That's a human thing... (although now that human scientists sent a rover to Mars, they're saying "ooh, that rock is shiny!" and disturbing it)

Read the small print

[ptomblin]

This object is not very far from other debris from the re-entry. It could very well turn out to be a chunk of something that got a bit melty on the way in.