[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Discovers A Potential Meteorite

From: John Birdsell <birdsell_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Jan 14 17:17:40 2005
Message-ID: <41E844FE.1000605_at_email.arizona.edu>

Hello Jeff, Ron and all. I don't know-I'm still not convinced that the
object found on Mars is a meteorite. Check out this link to a fabulous
meteor wrong that looks remarbably similar to the object found on Mars :

 http://www.arizonaskiesmeteorites.com/AZ_Skies_Links/Meteor_Wrong/index.html


We sure hope that we are wrong about this!


Cheers


-John
Arizona Skies Meteorites




Jeff Grossman wrote:

> I don't know if this thing is a real meteorite, but check out these
> two images. I think they are about the same size, both found in cold
> deserts.
>
> Heat Shield Rock, Mars:
> http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/p/346/1P158910593EFF40DPP2593L7M1.JPG
>
>
> Derrick Peak Iron, Antarctica:
> http://www.racine.ra.it/planet/testi/Foto/dpeak.htm
>
> Incredibly similar.
>
> Jeff
>
> At 04:24 PM 1/14/2005, Ron Baalke wrote:
>
>
>> http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6883
>>
>> Mars rover discovers a potential meteorite
>> Kelly Young
>> New Scientist
>> January 14, 2005
>>
>> NASA's rover Opportunity has spotted an unusual rock on Mars that may be
>> a meteorite.
>>
>> The rover first glimpsed the rock two weeks ago as it approached the
>> remains of its heat shield, which plummeted to Mars during the rover's
>> descent through the atmosphere in January 2004.
>>
>> The object, about the size of a potato, caught the eyes of ground
>> controllers because of its unusual pitted surface. "We've been seeing
>> little rocks on the plain since the start of the mission," says Steven
>> Squyres at Cornell University, the Mars rovers' chief scientist. "We all
>> just kind of assumed they're little pieces of Martian basalt."
>>
>> But Opportunity's infrared spectrometer, called Mini-TES, saw that this
>> object did not radiate thermal energy at the frequencies expected of
>> "typical" Martian rocks, leading scientists to hypothesise that the
>> object might in fact be a meteorite rich in metal.
>>
>> Opportunity has stayed next to the object and will continue making
>> measurements over the weekend to confirm whether this is indeed a
>> meteorite. Squyres says they should have the results by Monday or
>> Tuesday. "It could be any number of things if somehow we got faked out
>> by the Mini-TES data," Squyres cautions.
>>
>> Unexpected circumstances
>>
>> Meteorites are objects that survive the - sometimes fiery - fall to a
>> planet's surface from space. Only about 2% of the meteorites that land
>> on Earth are made of nickel and iron. The rest are made of rock.
>>
>> Squyres says that the rover's rock abrasion tool, which is used to grind
>> away the surface of rocks, had never been tested against a metal like
>> nickel. "I didn't see this coming," he told New Scientist.
>>
>> Opportunity will celebrate its first birthday on the Martian surface on
>> 25 January. So far, it has trekked over 2000 metres around Meridiani
>> Planum and recently weathered its first dust storm.
>>
>> Opportunity's twin rover, Spirit, has been roaming around the other side
>> of the planet on an area called Husband Hill, but it has had trouble
>> getting around because its wheels have been slipping on the sandy,
>> sloped surface. Ground controllers have also been monitoring a
>> fist-sized rock which has become stuck in the wall of Spirit's wheel.
>>
>>
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>
>
> Dr. Jeffrey N. Grossman phone: (703) 648-6184
> US Geological Survey fax: (703) 648-6383
> 954 National Center
> Reston, VA 20192, USA
>
>
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Received on Fri 14 Jan 2005 05:17:34 PM PST