Opportunity Spots Curious Object On Mars

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."

Beagle?

[Allen Zadr]

So that is what happened to the Beagle lander [chron.com]! They finally found it.

Monolith

[vivin]

It's the Monolith. Taa... taa... taaa...... TATAAAA!!!

Re:Monolith

[maxbang]

Currently at NASA HQ: "Hold on, we're getting something here. All...these...worlds...are...a...fanta...don't...y ou...wanta...fanta? Fanta? What the hell is this?"

Re:Monolith

[mesach]

Silly it's a Martian Golf ball, didn't Marvin play Tiger for the Buick Intergalactic Cup?

Re:Beagle? or maybe the Orbiter?

[Kerhop]

If it's not the Beagle, it might be the Mars Climate Orbiter [canoe.ca]

Robot Bunny?

[fembots]

I still prefer a cute bunny [nasa.gov] over metal robot.

To make a good sci-fi story though, Opportunity might have just reached its expiry date and that'll keep everybody in suspense for a long time.

Re:Robot Bunny?

[actiondan]

Things like rovers that stay in one place once they become refuse don't seem like much of a problem. Scraps of fabric blowing around in the martian wind seem a little more troublesome to me.

The thing that came across to me in that 'bunny ears' story was that the engineers were not at all suprised that might be bits of tape, fabric etc loose on the martian surface.

Each time one of these pieces of debris is observed, it will have to be identified to ensure it is not something more interesting. Wouldn't it b

Re:Robot Bunny?

[jfw25]

Things like rovers that stay in one place once they become refuse don't seem like much of a problem. Scraps of fabric blowing around in the martian wind seem a little more troublesome to me.

It's OK, they already thought of that. The parachutes are bio-degradable.

What?

DOH!

Re:Robot Bunny?

[niktesla]

send all our environmentalists to Mars to take care of it!

Don't forget the telephone sanitizers, hairdressers, TV producers, and salespeople.

That's no rock...

[Anonymous Coward]

it's a space station!

Re:That's no rock...

[escher]

It's to small to be a space station!... ...

I have a very bad feeling about this...

Re:That's no rock...

[rk]

It could be a terrible miscalculation in scale. Good thing there are no small dogs on Mars.

Re:That's no rock...

[Lars T.]

The StarWars action figures are actually larger than life sized.

It's a Martian Coke can.

[the_skywise]

All that's left after the martian holocaust...

sounds familiar

[PhilipOfOregon]

Wait -- I've seen this movie! DON'T GO LOOK AT IT!

Re:sounds familiar

[EnronHaliburton2004]

DON'T GO LOOK AT IT!

Look Denise, if you don't want to go look at it, fine. You just stay here. I'm going to look at it.

But first, here, wear my sports jacket, the sun is going down and it's going to get cold.

(walks away...)
(Turns around, and says reassuingly)

Don't worry, I'll be riiight back!

To boldy go...

[cosinezero]

If we tell GWB it's a WMD, maybe we'll finally get a real space program...

Re:To boldy go...

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you misunderestimate W. He's smart enough to stay the hell away from anyone who's even a few years from having WMD's (his record's pretty clear on this). Now if you told him it was OIL, THEN you'd get a space program!

Re:To boldy go...

[naugrim]

Well, he's already got a bunch of red states supporting his every move. I wonder what type of mandate he'd think he had if he had the entire red planet under him too.

Re:To boldy go...

[cosinezero]

it -is- a big freakin' desert.

finally

[Dark Demon]

Jimmy Hoffa has been found...

Illudium pew-36 explosive space modulator?

[Alien Being]

Be careful with the abrasion tool or there could be an earth-shattering kaboom.

Re:Illudium pew-36 explosive space modulator?

[Moofie]

I'd rather start a flamewar about your spelling of marshmallows.

Meteorite?

[HeighYew]

I would think that a meteorite would've been buried in the sand instead of sitting on top of it...

Re:Meteorite?

[Stevyn]

Maybe it was. It could have come down very shallow and not made a deep impact. Then strong winds could have blown the sand around it to uncover it. If it is made of metal, then it's probably too heavy for the winds to move it much. The wavy patterns in the sand around it make me think the area gets some wind.

I'm just guessing, of course, but it's a possibility.

Re:Meteorite?

[M1FCJ]

In the good olde days of Olde Earthe, people used to walk around and pick up iron meteorites and make trinklets off them.

After a while these ran out and humanity started to look under the ground to find them. Then they invented mines.

It is quite plausible to have meteorites around you. Especially in a geologically dead world like Mars, a rock is either billions of years old or fell off the sky. When you look at the amount of craters, you can clearly see that apparently quite a lot of stuff fell off the sky!

Re:Meteorite?

[uberdave]

Beagle II is on a completely different part [johnstonsarchive.net] of the planet. Trust me, it didn't roll a quarter of the way around the planet.

Re:Meteorite?

[NTmatter]

If it didn't roll, then who carried it?

Finally, they found my pet rock.

[LemonFire]

I always wondered what happened to it.

-- I discovered this SIG in the lost and found department.

Re:Finally, they found my pet rock.

[pair-a-noyd]

Yeah, but the REAL question is, who's been feeding it?
It's obviously grown up a lot since you lost it...

Ooooooh........ Ahhhhhh.......

Meteorite with no crater?

[schon]

OK, so speculation is that it's a meteorite - OK, but this was found on a large plain.. what are the odds that a meteor could hit a planet and not leave a crater? Wouldn't the gravity of Mars cause it to increase velocity?

Anyone with more knowledge of meteor physics than me have an explanation?

Re:Meteorite with no crater?

[Richard_at_work]

It could have broken off during the impact of another meteorite that DID cause a crater when it struck, thereby bleeding off enough energy to land on the martian surface without digging in. Bare in mind that this is pure speculation :)

Re:Meteorite with no crater?

[RobertB-DC]

OK, so speculation is that it's a meteorite - OK, but this was found on a large plain.. what are the odds that a meteor could hit a planet and not leave a crater? Wouldn't the gravity of Mars cause it to increase velocity?

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:Meteorite with no crater?

[LWATCDR]

If it was small enough it could land withoout much of a crater. At least here on earth most small meteors manage to land with out a huge impact crater.

Re:Meteorite with no crater?

[DrXym]

Maybe it hit water in some previous age and sunk to the bottom?

Re:Meteorite with no crater?

[Mr2cents]

Opportunity isn't covered in dust also.. In fact, something has cleaned it's solar panels! Mayby it's just a good sign? Some laminar winds causing the removal of dust? Does the flat shape of meridiani cause winds that don't stir up surface dust? Just a thought.

Re:Meteorite with no crater?

[nizo]

With all the hooplah last year about the mars meteorite that was found on earth, it would be ironic if this is a meteorite from earth.

Maybe it did leave a crater.

[i41Overlord]

Maybe the rock did leave a crater in the sand millions of years ago, and the crater got blown away by the wind, leaving the heavy rock sitting there.

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:Meteorite with no crater?

[Lars T.]

So where are the craters here? [saharamet.com] All those meteorites lying around in the desert without a visible crater.

Re:Meteorite with no crater?

[addie]

I'm no expert, so this is just speculation. But if the surface of Mars is covered for the most part in sand and fine dust, that would do a very good job of absorbing the impact of any small meteorites. Given the high speed of the winds there, any crater formed in such loose material would surely be swept away in not too much time (and we have no idea how long ago this "rock" landed).

Re:Meteorite with no crater?

[david.given]

Anyone with more knowledge of meteor physics than me have an explanation?

Meteors don't work like that, basically. What happens is that anything moving above a certain speed gets vapourised; shooting stars are. If it's large enough that it doesn't vapourise completely, what's left hits the ground at kilometres per second and makes a hell of a bang.

However, anything moving slowly gets slowed to a stop by the atmosphere, at which point it just falls.

The net effect is that meteors hit the ground either at kilometres per second or about two or three hundred miles per hour, and nothing in between.

Around the room reactions ...

[WankersRevenge]

Project leader Kenobi: it's not a rock. It's a space station

Data Analyst Rimmer: Aliens!

Computer Programmer Neo: Woaaah

Re:Around the room reactions ...

[5n3ak3rp1mp]

Any reference to Red Dwarf [tvtome.com] is priceless. Smeghead!

Re:Around the room reactions ...

[AceCaseOR]

Station Commander Michael J. Nelson: Let me out!!! Oh, we've got movie siiiiiggnnnnn!!!!!

Obvious.

[Aaron England]

Charateristic topology, metal composition, scorched surroundings; clearly Mars is giving birth.

That's not a rock...

[Tebriel]

it's a Starbucks. They really ARE everywhere.

Huh?

[Richie1984]

I stress that this is very preliminary!

Did this guy think that by saying that he would somehow prevent half of the internet preparing some crackpot theory within 5 seconds of reading it? :)

Personally, I'll wait before jumping to conclusions, and look forward to reading the followup!

Re:Huh?

[0racle]

NASA likes those, it gives them a laugh. On the other hand, maybe the theories are right and NASA gets to sit back and be amazed at how many people they pulled one over on.

What was their first reaction?

[RobertB-DC]

So the NASA team has been poking around the planet for more than a(n Earth) year [slashdot.org], right? Most of the surprises happened months ago... now it's just a matter of finding something to do until the batteries quit holding their charge. Looking at the heat shield [nasa.gov] doesn't seem like a very revealing bit of science -- more of a "gee look how far we've come" sort of cool thing.

Then they get a picture of a big freaking rock with a bunch of wierd holes, sitting there in the middle of a windblown plain. Not covered in dust like everything else... even the wind patterns in the dust around it look new.

What do you think the first guy to get that picture said when he looked, and then looked again, and realized that this wasn't going to be just another day on Mars?

Re:What was their first reaction?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, the Heat Shield WAS important.

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.

Re:What was their first reaction?

[sr180]

Exactly. The scientific value is fairly small. However, the engineering value is huge.

Re:What was their first reaction?

[Vellmont]

Looking at the heat shield doesn't seem like a very revealing bit of science -- more of a "gee look how far we've come" sort of cool thing.

You're right, looking at the heat shield isn't about science, but it is about engineering. The heat shield can obviously never be adequately tested, and until you take a look at it you never know exactly how well it performed. Were there areas where it could have failed? Was is over-engineered? Those are usefull questions that if we had answers to we could design better/more efficient heat shielding in the future.

The heat shield also digs into the surface far more than the rovers ever could, so you might see whats below the surface. Though looking at the heat shield sounds like a total geek thing to do, it can reveal a lot of non obvious information.

At this point you're probbably right about finding something to do. In the area where the rovers have landed we've seen the everyday stuff, and now it's all about being lucky enough to see the more rare things.

Re:What was their first reaction?

[Tackhead]

> Then they get a picture of a big freaking rock with a bunch of wierd holes, sitting there in the middle of a windblown plain. Not covered in dust like everything else... even the wind patterns in the dust around it look new.

Goddamn battlecrabs.

> What do you think the first guy to get that picture said when he looked, and then looked again, and realized that this wasn't going to be just another day on Mars?

Probably something like "Yeah yeah. Thousands of years ago... Look, Delenn, I know you h

Mini-TES

[A Boy and His Blob]

For those of you who don't know what TES (Thermal Emission Spectrometer) is, here [asu.edu] is some more information. The webpage is quite interesting.

Re:Mini-TES

[Scarblac]

Also, the "Mini" was added to its name just today, to look more trendy in the wake of Apple's Mac Mini, Google's jumping on the bandwagon, etc...

Re:Mini-TES

[rk]

For clarity: That link is to TES, which flies on the Mars Global Surveyor. The instrument on the rovers is called Mini-TES [asu.edu] and does similar things.

I work at the lab responsible for both.

But what is this?

[mowler2]

But what is this [lyle.org], that is next to the rock?

Is it the heat shield?

Re:But what is this?

[damiangerous]

Yes, it's the heat shield, which turned itself inside out. Here [nasa.gov] it is in color, from a different angle.

HHGG

[Turn-X Alphonse]

It's a large metal dome like object... on a featureless landscape..... it's got to be the restraunt at the end of the universe! We're all doom!

Barriers to private Mars rovers based on MERs?

[FleaPlus]

According to Wikipedia, "the total cost of building, launching, landing and operating the rovers on the surface for the initial 90 day primary mission was about US $820 million." Presumably, this means that constructing and launching a new rover based on the old designs could conceivably done for a few hundred million dollars. This places it well within the realm of billionaire space enthusiasts and companies looking for creative advertising opportunities. As an example, Procter Gamble has an annual ad budg

Re:Barriers to private Mars rovers based on MERs?

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Actually, cutting JPL out of the picture and just using standard robot designs combined with the public data about the heat shield, and I'll bet you could lob one of these babies from any given satelite launcher. It's just a game of spacewar (the original) after all.

I've got it

[kin_korn_karn]

it's a Martian coprolite! Now we can tell what they ate!

Gold...

[Sophrosyne]

Get your bags packed... this is going to make the old Gold Rush look like a walk in the park.

Don't touch with it!

[AceCaseOR]

If you tamper with it, you'll unleash demons from hell!!!!!!! [doom3.com]

Clearly...

[node 3]

It's a Horta.

Well well

[SpacePunk]

Yup, looks like a rock allright. Move along little rover, nothing more to see here.

Martian Gold Rush?

[Derling Whirvish]

Maybe it's a gold nugget! And the race is on. Exploration in 2010, settlement in 2020, mining in 2030, colonization in 2040, terraforming in 2050 .... (although a source of liquid water would be more valuable kilo for kilo than gold).

Out of Bounds

[signe]

Opportunity is going to get over there and get

"Hey! Little help over here? Can you just kick that back over this way? Say, you play goalie?"

-Todd

Read the small print

[ptomblin]

This object is not very far from other debris from the re-entry. It could very well turn out to be a chunk of something that got a bit melty on the way in.

By Occam, I think he's got it!

[eckenheimer]

The "object" is on the surface within a few meters of the heat shield. It's like nothing else the rovers have seen on Mars in over a year. I'd bet on Terrestrial origin. A "melty" chunk of the shield sounds about right. The surface pattern even resembles some of the texture of the shield material.

Nice Idea, But Scotched By The Dunes

[cmholm]

That the "rock" might be a melted piece of aeroshell ain't a half bad idea, considering that the rest of the immediate surroundings are covered with crap from the impact. However, there are a few clues I think point away from that:

the blob seems to be about the thickness of a good skipping stone, while the aeroshell is mostly honeycombed aluminum or titanium, made of metal sheets much the same thickness as a soda can.

If enough Titanium melted from the aeroshell to make that one blob, it wouldn't be the on

Is it the Beagle? Russian? Viking?

[gelfling]

An old Russian Satellite, Viking or some other man hurled glob of junk?

I think it is.

Or it's from another star system or dimension, that's also plausible.

What?

[Wrexen]

Interesting find, but what's up with that caption [space.com]?

Re:What?

[cephyn]

OMG file that under the classic Fun With URLs folder!!

Everybody is missing the obvious

[raitchison]

It's a Uranium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator [tvacres.com] of course.

Heck it's even on the right planet

Looks like Steve Case...

[sharkb8]

And the AOL marketing team got there before the Rover.

I think AOL started shipping their coasters in the little metal cases after some of their martian junkmail CDs failed to survive amospheric entry.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know!

[johnthorensen]

Am I the only one that thinks that the picture of this object:

http://a52.g.akamaitech.net/f/52/827/1d/www.space. com/images/h_opportunity_rock0113-1_01.jpg [akamaitech.net]

looks like a hacked-up pre-PhotoShop tabloid cover photo???

-JT

Better resolution images!

[sploxx]

MUCH better fullscreen versions can be found here:

http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportuni ty _n345.html

Conspiracy?

[amichalo]

You can never trust those Hollywood set designers to cleanup after lunch.

Be careful...

[xeaxes]

That meteor contains The Blob [imdb.com]!

I for one...

[John Whorfin]

I for one welco... oh nevermind, it's just not that funny.

Quaid, start the reactor!!!

[TheMonkeyDepartment]

FREE MARS!!!

Vamp vs Machine

[Doc Ruby]

That's not that interesting looking - like most of the rest of Mars we've seen - except to planetologists. I find it interesting that the surface of Mars is so boring. That's because all the action is below the surface, where Mars is teeming with vampires . Once Opportunity takes the bait of probing that rock, setting off the alarms, the thin Martian air will be filled with flapping batwings. Our wisdom in sending a bloodless probe will pay off, as we'll have drawn them out into the rays of the sun, where our robot minions are a match for the weakened biters. I'll be playing the SOLASER across the face of the Red Planet this week, amplifying the beneficent rays of the Sun perhaps enough to make a difference. That is, if the vampire-controlled FAA doesn't stop me with their "laser-warning system" they've bankrolled on trumped-up terror propaganda.

It can't be a burnt up vehicle,

[pair-a-noyd]

there's no atmosphere (so to speak) to burn up in.

NASA is really putting out lately...

[Dejohn]

This is somewhat offtopic, but it seems that NASA is really getting a lot of good press for very interesting and successful projects. Good for them! Their public perception is really improving after those nasty probe failures on mars a while back.

• Deep Impact launches to get data from a comet
• BOTH Mars rover projects continue to be successful
• Nasa nearing launch of shuttle again
• Nasa planning Hubble robotic upgrade
• Huygens "hours" from landing on Titan

What a great time to be alive! I'm happy that my tax dollars are funding this stuff.

It's a diversion

[CmdrGravy]

Look ! Look at the shiny rock. In the meantime the Martians will be sneaking away behind them.

Re:Somebody loose a probe?

[Marxist Hacker 42]

My guess is that it will turn out to be This [cnn.com].

Re:A real mystery.

[Rei]

This is a big deal. You don't find raw metal much on Mars; most of it is tied up with oxygen. Raw metal has many implications: if it is common, it can be a great source of base building. If the metals are rare on Earth as well, and they're common on Mars, they could provide a potential export source. If it is a meteor, and they're common, it could affect our models of how often Mars gets struck by meteors. Since the rock isn't buried, it could provide clues as to how long it's been on Mars, how fast Meridiani Planum is eroding, and give us dataon how metals wear over time on Mars.

Any time you find something you've never found before, it's a big deal. Honestly, to people who've been following the mission, it looked like Opportunity was pretty much wrapping things up. It just left a geological treasure trove and there isn't much more "on the map", so to speak. It's neat to see it continue making nice finds.

Re:A real mystery.

[Rei]

I should also add that raw metal is very easy to mine. In fact, one proposal for lunar construction involves simply shipping up magnets and a machine that churns up regolith, since a small but significant percentage of lunar regolith is pure iron in powder form. Pure iron powder allows for powder metallurgy - while it's not quite as strong as cast iron (not that you need such strength on the moon), you can make almost any shape with it, with a high degree of detail, safety, low energy input, simple tools,

Re:A real mystery.

[Penguinshit]

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.

Orbiters versus Rovers

[rk]

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that we get more data our of rovers than we do orbiters. Certainly a rover can give us very detailed data of a given area, but our knowledge of the regional and global characteristics of Mars come courtesy of our orbiter missions. The very landing sites picked were selected because of the data from these orbiters. Most of the rover data is relayed by the relay systems on the Mars Odyssey orbiter. I would say that rovers and orbiters complement each other nicely.

Keep

Re:A real mystery.

[mveloso]

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:That's so odd!

[TGK]

I can't wait to tell all my friends. They don't have a rock this big.

Re:That's so odd!

[escher]

*snorpth*

What's even more scary is I get the reference.

Re:That's so odd!

[TeraCo]

Now the important question is.. does it keep away tigers?

Re:It's SCO's list of Linux's infringing source co

[Curtman]

Haha, so that's where Blepp's Briefcase [com.com] went.

Re:a rotten brain

[escher]

... ix-nay on the otton-ray....

Re:There's gold in them there hills..

[ReadbackMonkey]

I'm sure the Dutch would suddenly develop a space program. Unless Austin Powers movies are not based in fact.....

Re:Could it be the remains of predecessor or itsel

[jdray]

It could resaonably be an iron meteorite [permanent.com].

"Iron meteorites", also called "irons", are usually just one big blob of iron-nickel (Fe-Ni) metal, as if it came from a industrial refinery without shaping. The alloy ranges from 5% to 62% nickel from meteorite to meteorite, with an average of 10% nickel. Cobalt averages about 0.5%, and other metals such as the platinum group metals, gallium, and germanium are dissolved in the Fe-Ni metal. (Fe is the chemical symbol for iron.) While most "irons" are pure or nearly pure metal, the technical definition of an "iron" includes metal meteorites with up to 30% mineral inclusions such as sulfides, metal oxides and silicates. The irons represent the cores of former planetoids.

Re:If it's a meteorite, then where is the crater?

[M1FCJ]

Doesn't have to be there. The best best case scenario would be if it fell down when the area was under water. That would be really brilliant. You would get just a nice big splash.

Even without water, it doesn't have to create a crater. It is quite small, such an object might not create a crater if it fell down at a shallow angle or low speed trajectory. Also probably it fell down billions of years ago, not last week. The crater might have eroded away, if it was too shallow (the rock looks approx. fist sized)