Reefa Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Specimen pictured by planet rover Opportunity could have been deposited by meteorite This composite image shows before and-after images taken by the Opportunity rover of the same spot on Mars two weeks apart Photograph: Nasa/AP Scientists are stumped as to how a rock mysteriously appeared in images of the same spot taken two weeks apart by Nasa's Mars rover Opportunity. The rover, which landed in an area known as Meridiani Planum a decade ago, is exploring the rim of a crater for signs of past water. On January 8, while preparing to use its robotic arm for science investigation, Opportunity sent back a picture of its work area. It showed a bright white rock, about the size of a doughnut, where only barren bedrock had appeared in a picture it had sent back two weeks earlier. Scientists suspect the rock was flipped over by one of the rover's wheels. It also may have been deposited after a meteorite landed nearby. Either way, the rock, dubbed "Pinnacle Island", is providing an unexpected science bonus. "Much of the rock is bright-toned, nearly white," Nasa said in a statement on Tuesday. "A portion is deep red in colour. Pinnacle Island may have been flipped upside-down when a wheel dislodged it, providing an unusual circumstance for examining the underside of a Martian rock." The Huffington post quoted Steve Squyres, the rover's lead scientist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, as saying: "It's like nothing we ever seen before. It's very high in sulphur, very high in magnesium; it has twice as much manganese than anything we've seen on Mars. I don't know what any of this means. We're completely confused, we're having a wonderful time." He added: "Mars keeps throwing new things at us." Another rover, Curiosity, touched down on the opposite side of the planet in 2012 for a more ambitious mission to look for past habitable environments. Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beamslider Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Ice that evaporated perhaps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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