Strange metal meteorite on Mars

I hope Im not reposting but the rover discovered this strange metal rock on Merdium

how about a link? your pic isn't showing up.

Originally posted by worldwatcher
how about a link? your pic isn't showing up.

link

It probably is just a meteorite. There are small meteorites in the science museum in the UK that look like that.

Cool,

I saw that thing, as the rover was coming up on the heatshield..
I was hoping they'd get closer. And they did..

I certainly has pitting, like the ones that fall to Earth (the ones that actually survive our thicker atmosphere.)

I guess the odds of finding a meteorite on Mars is much greater than on Earth..More would survive, the thinner atmosphere.
No weathering to speak of.
No pesky plants, and trees to hide them!

And of course, Mars is closer to the asteroid belt, lots of planetary detritus, floating around there!

I hope to hear moare about this..Thanks for bringing it up Kriskaos.

cant be a meteorite, it would have made a crator. yet it looks like it's been placed there

for the last several sols Rover opportunit has be inspecting debries from its lander. Just by the amount of dust not on it, it has to be man made trash

well it ther could be a crater just beneath the soil. Look at the pic notice how the sand or soil has patterns of weathring. This could mean that it was uncoverd by strong winds.

Originally posted by spacedoubt
I guess the odds of finding a meteorite on Mars is much greater than on Earth..More would survive, the thinner atmosphere.

It isn't completely as simple... small ones should survive more easily but when size increases they retain their speed much better than in earth's atmosphere meaning in there smaller objects fall down with cosmic speed and explode.

In earth biggest unbroken meteorite is Hoba found from Namibia and it's three meters long and weights ~60 ton. Also it being solid chunk of metal helped surviving through atmosphere. (82.4% iron, 16.4% nickel and 0.76% cobalt)
Bigger objects descend to lower (and denser) atmosphere with enough speed to cause big stress to object while speeds of small ones are already slowed in less denser upper atmosphere which doesn't cause so big stress.

That was also most propable reason for Tunguska explosion.

www-th.bo.infn.it...
www.osti.gov...

Originally posted by shaunybaby
cant be a meteorite, it would have made a crator. yet it looks like it's been placed there

Fist sized rocks are slowed down by atmosphere, they come down like rock you throw to air.

Some closeups now. By the microscopic imager.

meteorite? closeup

Seems to have some interesting markings.

The first image appears to show a bit of ablation..
Anyone else see that?


I think it's pretty cool that our Man-made meteor, may have landed right next to a natural one..