Possible Meteorite Imaged By Opportunity Rover

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."

Comments

Lack of crater - explained?

[burtosis]

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.

Re:Im no scientist

[Blublu]

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

Re:Odd Shaped Rock?

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

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?"

Re:NASA should make RC toys

[Chris Burke]

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?