NASA Rover Spots Strange Rock On Mars

In a photograph taken by the rover Curiosity on its 3,709th day on Mars, a wierd rock noticed within the higher proper of the picture has NASA consultants puzzled. The rock of bizarre gray colour is sitting atop the reddish bedrock.

“Pau Baru” – because the rock was named – may very well be a meteorite fragment or a pebble of a special rock formation, transported by wind or water to its precise place. The staff working the rover will attempt to analyze Pau Baru within the coming days to find out its composition and attainable origin.

In 2012, NASA despatched the Curiosity rover to Mars to discover Gale Crater, a big affect basin with an enormous, layered mountain within the center. As Curiosity has traversed alongside the Mars floor, it noticed numerous geological oddities.

In 2016, Curiosity found a darkish, golf-ball-sized object of unknown nature on the Martian floor. A chemical evaluation revealed excessive iron, nickel, and phosphor ranges, suggesting that it’s a nickel-iron meteorite. Earlier examples of presumed meteorites have been seen on Mars, however this one, referred to as “Egg Rock,” was the primary examined.

In 2014, Curiosity documented an unusually massive meteorite named “Lebanon I” and a smaller fragment named “Lebanon II.” Scientists have been shocked that the 2-meter-wide iron meteorite did not disintegrate throughout its descent into the Martian ambiance. The biggest iron meteorite discovered up to now on Earth is the Hoba meteorite, measuring 2,7 meters at its widest level. It’s believed that Earth’s ambiance slowed the meteorite in such a means that it impacted the floor at a terminal velocity low sufficient to stop disintegration in the meanwhile of affect.

Only in the near past a research introduced the invention of opal in fissures crossing the Martian bedrock because of images and chemical information collected by Curiosity.