[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Approaching Possible Meteorite

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2010 12:39:09 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201009211939.o8LJd961020283_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-309

Mars Rover Opportunity Approaching Possible Meteorite
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
September 21, 2010

[Image]
Opportunity used its panoramic camera to capture this view of a dark
rock that may be an iron meteorite. Part of the rim of Endurance Crater
is on the horizon. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

PASADENA, Calif. -- Images that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover
Opportunity took at the end of an 81-meter (266-foot) drive on Sept. 16
reveal a dark rock about 31 meters (102 feet) away. The rover's science
team has decided to go get a closer look at the toaster-sized rock and
determine whether it is an iron meteorite.

"The dark color, rounded texture and the way it is perched on the
surface all make it look like an iron meteorite," said science-team
member Matt Golombek of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif. Opportunity has found four iron meteorites during the rover's
exploration of the Meridiani Planum region of Mars since early 2004.
Examination of these rocks has provided information about the Martian
atmosphere, as well as the meteorites themselves.

The newfound rock has been given the informal name "Oilean Ruaidh"
(pronounced ay-lan ruah), which is the Gaelic name for an island off the
coast of northwestern Ireland. The rock is about 45 centimeters (18
inches) wide from the angle at which it was first seen.

Opportunity has driven 23.3 kilometers (14.5 miles) on Mars. The drive
to this rock will take the total combined distance driven by Opportunity
and its twin, Spirit, to more than 31 kilometers (19.26 miles).

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena,
manages the Mars Exploration Rover mission for the NASA Science Mission
Directorate, Washington. Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004 for
what was planned as a three-month mission. For more information about
the mission, see http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov.

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, California

2010-309
Received on Tue 21 Sep 2010 03:39:09 PM PDT