. Mars Exploration News .




MARSDAILY
Mars rover makes surprising rock find
by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) Oct 11, 2012


A rock analyzed by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has a surprising and more varied composition that resembles rare rocks from the bowels of our planet, the US space agency said Thursday.

"This rock is a close match in chemical composition to an unusual but well-known type of igneous rock found in many volcanic provinces on Earth," Curiosity co-investigator Edward Stolper of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena said in a statement.

"With only one Martian rock of this type, it is difficult to know whether the same processes were involved, but it is a reasonable place to start thinking about its origin."

On Earth, rocks with similar compositions usually come from "processes in the planet's mantle beneath the crust, from the crystallization of relatively water-rich magna at elevated pressure," according to the NASA statement.

Curiosity, on the Red Planet since August 6, used two instruments to study the football-sized rock, which is dubbed Jake Matijevic, or Jake for short.

One was the arm-mounted Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer -- known as APXS -- and the other was the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument.

"Jake is kind of an odd Martian rock," said APXS principal investigator Ralf Gellert of the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. "It's high in elements consistent with the mineral feldspar, and low in magnesium and iron."

NASA said the initial results were just a preview, noting that Curiosity also carries analytical laboratories inside the rover.

Soon, it plans to analyze its first Martian soil sample.

"We used Curiosity's first perfectly scooped sample for cleaning the interior surfaces of our 150-micron sample-processing chambers," said Chris Roumeliotis, lead turret rover planner at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "It's our version of a Martian car wash."

NASA has also determined that a bright object observed on the ground near the robot several days ago was just a bit of plastic that does not jeopardize the rover's operations.

Curiosity is on a two-year, $2.5 billion mission to investigate whether it is possible to live on Mars and to learn whether conditions there might have been able to support life in the past.

Related Links
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more




.
.
Get Our Free Newsletters Via Email
...
Buy Advertising Editorial Enquiries






.

. Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle



MARSDAILY
Mars Rock Touched by NASA Curiosity has Surprises
Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 12, 2012
The first Martian rock NASA's Curiosity rover has reached out to touch presents a more varied composition than expected from previous missions. The rock also resembles some unusual rocks from Earth's interior. The rover team used two instruments on Curiosity to study the chemical makeup of the football-size rock called "Jake Matijevic" (matt-EE-oh-vick) The results support some surprising ... read more


MARSDAILY
Russia to launch lunar mission in 2015

Moon water could have solar source: study

Solar wind particles likely source of water locked inside lunar soils

Russian moon mission said funded, ready

MARSDAILY
China launches civilian technology satellites

China's manned spacecraft in final preparations for mid-June launch

ChangE-2 Mission To Lagrange L2 Point

Meeting of heads of ESA and China Manned Space Agency

MARSDAILY
Crew Unloads Dragon, Finds Treats

Station Crew Opens Dragon Hatch

NASA and International Partners Approve Year Long ISS Stay

Year on ISS planned ahead of manned Mars mission

MARSDAILY
Sharpest-ever Ground-based Images of Pluto and Charon: Proves a Powerful Tool for Exoplanet Discoveries

The Kuiper Belt at 20: Paradigm Changes in Our Knowledge of the Solar System

e2v To Supply Large CMOS Imaging Sensors For Imaging Kuiper Belt Objects

Fly New Horizons through the Kuiper Belt

MARSDAILY
Bouncing on Titan

Navigating the Seas of Titan

Titan Shows Surprising Seasonal Changes

Does Triton Have a Subsurface Ocean?

MARSDAILY
GMES for Europe

Boeing Releases Updated Geospatial Data Management Tool

First images from e2v imaging sensors on SPOT 6 Earth observation satellite

New Commercial Imaging Spacecraft Progressing at Lockheed Martin as IKONOS Satellite Achieves 13 Years in Operations

MARSDAILY
Austrian daredevil to make new space jump bid

Austrian breaks sound barrier in record space jump

Austrian daredevil to make new space jump bid

Red Bull set for marketing history with supersonic jump

MARSDAILY
Nearby Super-Earth Likely a Diamond Planet

Candels Team Discovers Dusty Galaxies At Ancient Epoch With Hubble Space Telescope

Large water reservoirs at the dawn of stellar birth

Comet crystals found in a nearby planetary system


Memory Foam Mattress Review

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily Express :: SpaceWar Express :: TerraDaily Express :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

.

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2012 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement