NASA’s rovers keep rolling toward fresh discoveries. The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has found an iron meteorite, the first meteorite ever identified on another planet, according to officials with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena. Spectrometers on Opportunity determined that the object, about the size of a basketball, is composed mostly of iron and nickel. Only a small fraction of the meteorites that fall to Earth are similarly rich in metals; most are rockier.
Loading ...
Rover Spies Metal Meteorite on Mars
Posted by: ECT News Science Desk January 20, 2005 08:44 AMNASA’s rovers keep rolling toward fresh discoveries. The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has found an iron meteorite, the first meteorite ever identified on another planet, according to officials with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena. Spectrometers on Opportunity determined that the object, about the size of a basketball, is composed mostly of iron and nickel. Only a small fraction of the meteorites that fall to Earth are similarly rich in metals; most are rockier.