[meteorite-list] Martian Meteor Mystery Solved

From: MexicoDoug_at_aol.com <MexicoDoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Jun 29 00:46:23 2004
Message-ID: <a9.5b3ca045.2e124e07_at_aol.com>

http://www.space.com/astronotes/astronotes.html

June 28

Mars Mystery Solved!

Of the many intriguing observations taken by the Mars rovers, one of the most
interesting was not of the surrounding geology. Rather, it was?an image of
the martian atmosphere. Caught in action was something streaking through the
sky.

At first, Mars scientists operating the rovers thought the fast moving,
caught-on-camera curiosity was a spacecraft?-- perhaps an aging Viking Orbiter
still circling the red planet.

?The initial thought was that little streak in the sky was an old relic
spacecraft. There?s a lot of junk in orbit around Mars,? said Steve Squyres of
Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and principal investigator for the Athena
science payload toted on each of the Mars rovers.

Mars meteor captured by Spirit rover.(Click to Enlarge)
http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=v_mars_co
ntrail_met_02.jpg&cap=Spirit rover image of atmosphere taken through green
filter. Streak in martian sky can be seen. First thought to be orbiting
spacecraft, a research group in France says robot caught a Mars meteor. Credit:
NASA/JPL
    
    
But a research group in France came up with the real story, Squyres reported
at the American Astronomical Society meeting held earlier this month. The
study group took a look at predicted times and radiance for meteor showers at
Mars. Turns out, the Spirit rover image was snapped during one of those showers,
he said.

?The orientation of the streak in the sky matches the radiant for that shower
to within a fraction of a degree. So we?ve seen a martian meteor,? Squyres
said.

-- Leonard David

    
    
    
    
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/attachments/20040629/63650456/attachment.htm
Received on Tue 29 Jun 2004 12:45:59 AM PDT