Remnants of a metallic meteorite on Mars

Prepared by: Mustafa Al-Zoubi

NASA’s Mars rover, the Curiosity rover, found a mineral meteorite in Mount Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp on Mars.

The Curiosity Rover is a nuclear-powered roaming spacecraft that is part of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory project. The vehicle landed on Mars on August 6, 2012 to explore Mars.

The meteorite consists of nickel and iron, while the surface of Mars is red from oxides, and the meteorite is dark gray and has a metallic appearance. Iron and nickel meteorites are the rarest types of meteorites, making up about six percent of the observed falls.

Most iron and nickel meteorites come from the shattered cores of minor planets that formed in the early solar system. These objects were large enough to distinguish when they were molten. It formed a dense iron-nickel core, just like Earth.

Curiosity took the pictures on January 27, during its 3724th day on Mars, and the colors in the image were corrected to match the lighting conditions as seen by human eyes on Earth.

Although Mars’ atmosphere is much thinner than Earth’s, it still causes enough friction to heat the surface of the meteorite. These bumps on the meteorite remains are likely caused by swirls of hot gas that melted the rock as it traveled through the atmosphere. The meteorite may have been on Mars for a long time, but no one knows.