Alien to Mars: Oilean Ruaidh Found and Photographed by Rover Opportunity

This is an image of the meteorite “Oileán Ruaidh” that NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity found and examined in September 2010.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University 

 

Opportunity’s cameras first revealed the meteorite in images taken on Sol 2363 (Sept. 16, 2010), the 2,363rd Martian day of the rover’s mission on Mars. This view was taken with the panoramic camera on Sol 2371 (Sept. 24, 2010).

The science team used two tools on Opportunity’s arm — the microscopic imager and the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer — to inspect the rock’s texture and composition. Information from the spectrometer confirmed that the rock is a nickel-iron meteorite. The team informally named the rock “Oileán Ruaidh” (pronounced ay-lan ruah), which is the Gaelic name for an island off the coast of northwestern Ireland.

Opportunity departed Oileán Ruaidh and resumed its journey toward the mission’s long-term destination, Endeavour Crater, on Sol 2374 (Sept. 28, 2010) with a drive of about 100 meters (328 feet).

This view, presented in approximately true color, combines component images taken through three Pancam filters admitting wavelengths of 601 nanometers, 535 nanometers and 482 nanometers. Opportunity’s Close-up of a Meteorite: ‘Oileán Ruaidh’ (False Color)

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University 

Opportunity’s cameras first revealed the meteorite in images taken on Sol 2363 (Sept. 16, 2010), the 2,363rd Martian day of the rover’s mission on Mars. This view was taken with the panoramic camera on Sol 2371 (Sept. 24, 2010).

The rover’s cameras revealed the meteorite on its trek to its long-term destination, Endeavour crater, in images taken on Sol 2363 (Sept. 16, 2010), the 2,363rd Martian day of the rover’s mission on Mars. This view was taken with the navigation camera on Sol 2368 (Sept. 21, 2010), after a drive the preceding sol to get close to the rock. The meteorite is about half a meter (20 inches) long. This image is the left-eye member of a stereo pair. 

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

 

Images that NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity took at the end of an 81-meter (266-foot) drive on Sept. 16 reveal a dark rock about 31 meters (102 feet) away. The rover’s science team has decided to go get a closer look at the toaster-sized rock and determine whether it is an iron meteorite. 

“The dark color, rounded texture and the way it is perched on the surface all make it look like an iron meteorite,” said science-team member Matt Golombek of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Opportunity has found four iron meteorites during the rover’s exploration of the Meridiani Planum region of Mars since early 2004. Examination of these rocks has provided information about the Martian atmosphere, as well as the meteorites themselves.

 

NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its panoramic camera to capture this view of a dark rock that was found to be an iron meteorite

Source:  NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University