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Possible Meteorite Imaged By Opportunity Rover

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the marvin-is-right-behind-it dept.

Matt_dk writes "The Opportunity rover has eyed an odd-shaped, dark rock, about 0.6 meters (2 feet) across on the surface of Mars, which may be a meteorite. The team spotted the rock called 'Block Island,' on July 18, 2009, in the opposite direction from which it was driving. The rover then backtracked some 250 meters (820 feet) to study it closer. Scientists will be testing the rock with the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer to get composition measurements and to confirm if indeed it is a meteorite."

11 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. NASA should make RC toys by InMSWeAntitrust · · Score: 3, Insightful

    NASA should make RC toys to build funds, if anything I bought lasted as long as these rovers, I'd be a happy camper.

    1. Re:NASA should make RC toys by Chris+Burke · · Score: 5, Insightful

      NASA should make RC toys to build funds, if anything I bought lasted as long as these rovers, I'd be a happy camper.

      Yeah but who the hell is going to buy an RC toy that has a top speed of 0.1 mph and doesn't respond to your commands for twenty minutes?

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    2. Re:NASA should make RC toys by Smidge204 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      > (well maybe not a machinegun)

      Yeah, the recoil would bounce the thing all over.

      Therefore; Rocket launcher.
      =Smidge=

  2. Im no scientist by Alarindris · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But shouldn't there be a bigass crater with a meteorite that big?

    1. Re:Im no scientist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I know nothing either, but maybe a big meteorite landed some distance away and made a crater and exploded flinging decent sized fragments out in all directions, this then bounced and rolled to a stop without ending up sitting in a crater.

    2. Re:Im no scientist by Blublu · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Wait, shouldn't the moon then be ... less ... uh, cratered?

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      meh
    3. Re:Im no scientist by Drakin020 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The Opportunity rover is also on a long path towards a crater if I'm not mistaken. That could be from an impact that send other rocks flying out to various areas.

      --
      The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
    4. Re:Im no scientist by cyn1c77 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Less than you'd think - the biggest damage is not caused by the impact, but by the supersonic shock wave of superheated air preceding the meteor. In a thin atmosphere like Mars, there's a much less pronounced shock wave.

      What!?!?! Do you have any technical qualifications to make that statement? Because from a scientific standpoint, it is complete bullshit.

      No way. I completely disagree with you. That's like saying that a bullet doesn't hurt you that much, but the shock it drives in the air ahead of it does all the damage. Think about the impedance mismatch between the shocked air and the solid ground... it makes no sense.

      While you are correct that there is less of a shock in a thinner atmosphere, you have your damage reasoning completely wrong. The airblast does very little damage to solid rock where as the impact of a stone or metal meteorite will deliver massive damage. You need to consider the relative energy contained in the shock wave versus the kinetic energy of the moving solid object. The solid object driving the shock wins every time... and by a massive margin. That's why it is driving the shock wave in the atmosphere.

      If anything, the thinness of the Martian atmosphere means that it would have hit the planet going much faster and remaining much more intact (prior to impact) than it would have on Earth or Venus. Thus, the thinness of the atmosphere would result in increased damage to the surface.

      A more likely explanation is that this is a fragment from a cratering event that got blown away from the crater during the impact explosion.

  3. Odd Shaped Rock? by truckaxle · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why the use of this adjective? Most rocks i know of are "odd shaped"

    1. Re:Odd Shaped Rock? by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why the use of this adjective? Most rocks i know of are "odd shaped"

      Because it stood out from the other rocks in the area. It's easy to imagine that they had Slashdot nitpickers in mind when they wrote that. "How could they tell it wasn't just a rock that's been sitting there for ages and ages?"

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      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  4. Lack of crater - explained? by burtosis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Perhaps it tumbled into position and the crater(s) are some distance away. It looks highly unusual as it is sitting too high up above the surface indicating that it was not deposited along with the rest of the material which *guessing* is why they were able to identify it as a possible meteorite from such a far away distance. Besides the color presumably not matching the surrounding material.