Opportunity Spots Curious Object On Mars 288
EhobaX writes "Space.com is reporting that NASA's Opportunity Mars rover has come across an interesting object -- perhaps a meteorite sitting out in the open at Meridiani Planum. Initial data taken by the robot's Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) is suggestive that the odd-looking "rock" is made of metal."
Could it be the remains of predecessor or itself? (Score:1, Insightful)
Of course, that is why they are there!
Billy
Re:Meteorite? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm just guessing, of course, but it's a possibility.
Re:Meteorite with no crater? (Score:4, Insightful)
One scenario is that the rock hit Mars a gazillion years ago. Wind storms filled the area with Mars dust. Over the eons, the weather patterns changed, and now the wind storms are blowing the dust out of the area... uncovering the rock.
Though the thing sure looks a lot like a dehydrated Martian to me. Just add water!
Re:Around the room reactions ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:A real mystery. (Score:4, Insightful)
The best part of the story is it seems that both the rovers will be continuing on for quite some time. Talk about a huge vat of gravy for this mission. It's really nice to see our taxpayer dollars repaid so handsomely.
With the initial "water" find complete, these little critters are free to give us so much more information about Mars than we could have gotten with 50 Viking probes or any manner of orbiting system.
Re:What was their first reaction? (Score:5, Insightful)
Designing re-entry shields for planets you don't know alot about ( compared to earth ) can be tricky. Undoubtably they overengineered it, and made it heavier than needed just in case.
By examining the heat shield, and the thermal damage, they can get a better feel for the physical and thermal stresses caused by a martian re entry.
This would lead to lighter, better heat shields. And since cost is proportional to weight, a lighter more effective heat shield leads to cheaper future mars missions, or allows one to cram more instruments into a probe. Either way, WIN!
They are tooling around a planet we still know little about, so it's all good.
Maybe it did leave a crater. (Score:5, Insightful)
Things can sit on the surface forever there. It's not like there's anyone there to say "ooh, this is shiny!" and disturb it. That's a human thing... (although now that human scientists sent a rover to Mars, they're saying "ooh, that rock is shiny!" and disturbing it)
Re:Beagle? or maybe the Orbiter? (Score:2, Insightful)
Martian Gold Rush? (Score:2, Insightful)
Read the small print (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:To boldy go... (Score:2, Insightful)
NASA is really putting out lately... (Score:3, Insightful)
What a great time to be alive! I'm happy that my tax dollars are funding this stuff.
By Occam, I think he's got it! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Meteorite with no crater? (Score:2, Insightful)
Since we know force=mass*acceleration, the amount of energy hitting the ground would be dependant on the speed of the rock. Thus an identical rock hitting Earth would create a bigger crater.
Re:A real mystery. (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, isn't everything on Mars something we've never found before? And how much of Mars is left?
It may be a big deal to planetary people, but to the General Public it's just more banality dressed up as something exciting.
Call when something interesting happens, like they figured out how the solar cells got cleaned off somehow and are generating more power.
Re:Meteorite with no crater? (Score:3, Insightful)