From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Thu Apr 15 2004 - 11:03:13 PDT
----- Original Message -----
From: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory<mailto:info_at_jpl.nasa.gov>
To: ljk4_at_msn.com<mailto:ljk4_at_msn.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 1:42 PM
Subject: Mars Rover Finds Rock Resembling Meteorites That Fell to Earth
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NEWS RELEASE: 2004-104 April 15, 2004
Mars Rover Finds Rock Resembling Meteorites That Fell to Earth
NASA's Opportunity rover has examined an odd volcanic rock on the
"We think we have a rock similar to something found on Earth," said
The resemblance helps resolve a paradox about the meteorites, too.
"There is a striking similarity in spectra," said Christian Schroeder,
Mars Exploration Rover scientists described two such meteorites in
Opportunity's miniature thermal emission spectrometer indicates that
Thermal infrared imaging by another orbiter, Mars Odyssey, suggests a
Opportunity is driving eastward, toward a crater dubbed "Endurance"
Mission controllers at JPL successfully sent new versions of flight
A parting look at the small crater in which Opportunity landed is part
The panorama gives a good sense of how wind has uncovered the outcrop
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena,
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: Thu Apr 15 2004 - 13:00:57 PDT
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=m4xAzGR2cv5O-3BCLCXxIg
http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=o9T8e7h19upO-3BCLCXxIg
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
plains of Mars' Meridiani Planum region with a composition unlike
anything seen on Mars before, but scientists have found similarities
to meteorites that fell to Earth.
Dr. Benton Clark of Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver,
science-team member for the Opportunity and Spirit rovers on Mars. The
similarity seen in data from Opportunity's alpha particle X-ray
spectrometer "gives us a way of understanding 'Bounce Rock' better,"
he said. Bounce Rock is the name given to the odd, football-sized
rock because Opportunity struck it while bouncing to a stop inside
protective airbags on landing day.
Bubbles of gas trapped in them match the recipe of martian atmosphere
so closely that scientists have been confident for years that these
rocks originated from Mars. But examination of rocks on Mars with
orbiters and surface missions had never found anything like them,
until now.
a rover science-team collaborator from the University of Mainz,
Germany, which supplied both Mars rovers' Moessbauer spectrometer
instruments for identifying iron-bearing minerals.
particular during a Mars Exploration Rover news conference at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. One rock, named Shergotty,
was found in India in 1865 and it gave its name to a class of
meteorites called shergottites. A shergottite named EETA79001 was
found in Antarctica in 1979 and has an elemental composition even
closer to Bounce Rock's. Those two and about 18 other meteorites
found on Earth are believed to have been ejected from Mars by the
impacts of large asteroids or comets hitting Mars.
the main ingredient in Bounce Rock is a volcanic mineral called
pyroxene, said science-team collaborator Deanne Rogers of Arizona
State University, Tempe. The Moessbauer spectrometer also identified
pyroxene in the rock. The high proportion of pyroxene makes it unlike
not only any other rock studied by Opportunity or Spirit, but also
unlike the volcanic deposits mapped extensively around Mars by a
similar spectrometer on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter, Rogers
said.
possible origin for Bounce Rock. An impact crater about 25 kilometers
wide (16 miles wide) lies about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of
Opportunity. The images show that some rocks thrown outward by the
impact that formed that crater flew as far as the distance to the
rover. "Some of us think Bounce Rock could have been ejected from this
crater," Rogers said.
that might offer access to thicker exposures of bedrock than the rover
has been able to examine so far. With new software to improve mobility
performance, the rover may reach Endurance within two weeks, said
JPL's Jan Chodas, flight software manager for both Mars Exploration
Rovers.
software to both rovers. Spirit switched to the new version
successfully on Monday, and Opportunity did late Tuesday.
of a full 360-degree color panorama released at the news conference.
The view combines about 600 individual frames from the rover's
panoramic camera, said science-team collaborator Jason Soderblom of
Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. It is called the Lion King panorama
because it was taken from a high-ground viewpoint at the edge of the
crater, like the high-ground viewpoint used by animal characters in
the Lion King story.
at the upwind side of the crater and deposited sand in the downwind
side of the crater and bright martian dust in the wind shadow of the
crater, Soderblom commented. On the wide plain outside the crater
lies Bounce Rock.
manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space
Science, Washington, D.C. Images and additional information about the
project are available from JPL at http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=DjHfHVGW6BdO-3BCLCXxIg
from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., at http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=Oyv89gkAsOZO-3BCLCXxIg
http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=z-9J2MzduYFO-3BCLCXxIg
http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=SPreI4xX2P1O-3BCLCXxIg