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ZL2VAL > ROVERS 20.01.05 21:09l 82 Lines 3194 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : CC0736ZL2VAL
Read: GUEST
Subj: Mars rock a meteorite
Path: DB0FHN<DB0MRW<DB0WUE<DK0WUE<7M3TJZ<ZL2BAU<ZL2AB
Sent: 050119/1043Z @:ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC #:55608 [New Plymouth] FBB7.00g
From: ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
To : ROVERS@WW
Jan 19, 2005
NASA rover finds meteorite on surface of Mars
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - NASA's Opportunity rover has determined that a strange
bubbly rock on the surface of Mars is actually a meteorite, offering a
new clue into how the Martian surface is made and remade.
Scientists are not so much interested in the meteorite itself. Rather,
they want to see if other objects nearby also are meteorites and how
Martian winds are reshaping the planet.
If sand is continually blowing in and being deposited on the surface,
burying things and building up terrain over time, meteorites will be
covered and few will be seen, rover mission scientist Steve Squyres said
Tuesday.
But if fine surface material is being continuously stripped away by the
wind, coarse things such as meteorites will be left behind and their
accumulation will show.
"So whether you’re seeing a net accumulation or a net burial of the
meteorites is going to tell you something about what the erosion or
deposition rates are out on the plains," Squyres said.
Opportunity landed Jan. 24 on the Meridiani plains, halfway around the
planet from where its twin, Spirit, set down in the Gusev Crater region
on Jan. 3, 2004.
Opportunity, a six-wheeled robot geologist, quickly discovered rocks
showing that it's area of Meridiani was once soaked in water, the major
scientific finding of the twin-rover mission. After that it explored
rocks in a deep crater before heading off to give engineers a look at
its discarded heat shield.
A strange basketball-sized object nearby stood out immediately.
It looked like nothing seen at either landing site, said Squyres, a
Cornell University scientist who is the principal investigator for
NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers mission. Scientists suspected it was a
meteorite.
"On a mission of exploration, some things you're going to find because
you went looking for them, you planned for them and you did your job
right, and sometimes you're just going to get lucky. And this one was
just luck," said Squyres.
Opportunity was then ordered to deploy its instrument arm to confirm if
the object was a meteorite. The rover used its brush to remove dust but
didn’t grind into the meteorite since it was determined the tool would
be no match for the nickel-iron hunk.
Tests on Earth showed that a similar tool's grinding heads would be worn
away by the meteorite. "We designed our rock abrasion tool for rock. We
didn't design it for nickel-iron alloys," he said.
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73, Alan
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