Article Posted on : - Oct 05, 2009

The 'shelter Island' meteorite. Image credit: NASA

WASHINGTON (BNS): NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has stumbled upon a rock, believed to be a meteorite, less than three weeks after driving away from a larger meteorite which it examined in full detail for six weeks.

The image, dubbed as ‘Shelter Island’, was captured by the rover’s navigation camera during the mission's 2,022nd Martian day (also called sol) on October 1, NASA said.

The pitted rock is about 47 centimeters long. Opportunity had driven 28.5 meters that sol to approach the rock after it had been detected in images taken after a drive two sols earlier.

The spaceship had detected the ‘Block Island’ meteorite on the Martian surface in July and completed its detailed study in September. The metallic meteorite, with the size of a watermelon, was traced in a Martian region called Meridiani Planum.

Opportunity had found a smaller iron-nickel meteorite named ‘Heat Shield Rock’ in the Red Planet in late 2004.

These discoveries are likely to aid scientists understand more about our neighbouring planet’s present and past atmosphere in full detail.