[meteorite-list] Curiosty Rover Finds Iron Meteorite on Mars

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 10:56:40 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201407151756.s6FHueA4005528_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/?ImageID=6433

Curiosity Finds Iron Meteorite on Mars
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
July 15, 2014

[Image]

This rock encountered by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is an iron meteorite
called "Lebanon," similar in shape and luster to iron meteorites found
on Mars by the previous generation of rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.
Lebanon is about 2 yards or 2 meters wide (left to right, from this angle).
The smaller piece in the foreground is called "Lebanon B."

This view combines a series of high-resolution circular images taken by
the Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) of Curiosity's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam)
instrument with color and context from rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam).
The component images were taken during the 640th Martian day, or sol,
of Curiosity's work on Mars (May 25, 2014).

The imaging shows angular shaped cavities on the surface of the rock.
One possible explanation is that they resulted from preferential erosion
along crystalline boundaries within the metal of the rock. Another possibility
is that these cavities once contained olivine crystals, which can be found
in a rare type of stony-iron meteorites called pallasites, thought to
have been formed near the core-mantle boundary within an asteroid.

Iron meteorites are not rare among meteorites found on Earth, but they
are less common than stony meteorites. On Mars, iron meteorites dominate
the small number of meteorites that have been found. Part of the explanation
could come from the resistance of iron meteorites to erosion processes
on Mars.

ChemCam is one of 10 instruments in Curiosity's science payload. The U.S.
Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory, in Los Alamos,
New Mexico, developed ChemCam in partnership with scientists and engineers
funded by the French national space agency (CNES), the University of Toulouse
and the French national research agency (CNRS). More information about
ChemCam is available at http://www.msl-chemcam.com . The rover's MastCam
was built by and is operated by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP/LPGNantes/CNRS/IAS/MSSS
Received on Tue 15 Jul 2014 01:56:40 PM PDT