Another exciting discovery has been uncovered by N.A.S.A’s Curiosity rover while exploring the dry surface of Mars.
This time, a super-high resolution image stitched together from 19 individual images taken by the rover on January 28 shows what appears to be the Cacao meteorite, an iron-nickel meteorite. About a foot broad, cacao.
The odd item is a sulfate-bearing portion of Mount Sharp on the Red Planet, and stands out sharply from the surroundings due to its striking silver metallic sheen.
The meteorite is “Rock. Rock. Rock. Rock. METEORITE,” according to the rover’s official Twitter account. “Finding meteorites on Mars is frequent; in fact, I’ve done it a few times! However, a change of scenery is always welcome.”
Curiosity, which has spent more than 10 years investigating Mars’ surface, is ill-equipped to take a sample from Cacao and return it to Earth. One of the main objectives of its companion Perseverance, the only other operating rover now roaming the surface of Mars, has been to methodically gather samples of Martian rock and soil.
Researchers may be able to learn more from the meteorite about the Red Planet’s past and whether or not life has ever been there. The scars and indentations on Cacao’s surface were probably made as it went through the atmosphere, despite the planet having a small amount of atmosphere, according to Universe Today.
One of the rarest meteorite varieties is iron nickel, and iron nickel meteorites have a good chance of surviving in the atmospheres of either Mars or Earth. The scientists can only learn a finite amount of information about Curiosity’s most recent find, though. The crew acknowledged as much on Twitter, “There’s no way to date these.” But it might have existed for millions of years.
