While we were engaged celebrate Halloween , NASA was busy look at an regalia of target on Mars with its extensive suite of instruments on board the Curiosity wanderer . The weird - looking rock ‘n’ roll will for sure cause bloggers in many cellar around the existence to claim it as an exotic artifact or maybe a robotic head .
The stone in question has been dubbed “ Egg Rock ” by researchers at theAstrogeology Science Centerin Arizona . It was studied by the rover ’s ChemCam Remote Micro - Imager , which dash optical maser at a object and then psychoanalyze the illumination released by the vanish tilt to turn out what material it is made of .
While the analysis is still ongoing , the team running theRed Planet Report , from Arizona State University , propose a small nickel - smoothing iron meteorite as the most likely campaigner . Curiosity has discover meteorites on Mars before , but this one seems significantly more polished than the old ones fall upon by other wanderer like Opportunity orSpirit .
Meteorite chunks like this are probably common on Mars due to its atmosphere , which is significantly different from Earth ’s . The Red Planet has on fair 1 percent of the atmospheric pressure of our planet , which helps meteors , specially the more thick ones , reach out to the flat coat intact .
Curiosity click this photograph of " Egg Rock " on Sunday , October 30 . The white areas correspond to the hit spot of the optical maser . NASA / JPL - Caltech / MSSS
Mars ’ atmosphere lacks abundant oxygen and H2O vapor , which would rust and eventually erode this target . For this reason , atomic number 26 meteorites command the small number of celestial rock that have been detect on the Red Planet .
Curiosity is continuing its work inside Gale Crater , slowly rise the shallow side of Mount Sharp , the mission ’s main objective , the base of which was reached in September 2014 . The rover is now move towards a capped ridge fat in hematite , an branding iron - oxide mineral .
" We continue to arrive at higher and younger layer on Mount Sharp , " said Curiosity Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada of NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena , California , in astatement . " Even after four age of explore near and on the mountain , it still has the potential drop to entirely storm us . "
[ H / T : Red Planet Report ]
