NASA released photos on Tuesday of a seven-foot iron meteorite found on Mars by its Curiosity Mars rover.
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Images of the iron meteorite, called "Lebanon," were taken on May 25,
Curiosity’s 640th Martian day, NASA said in a statement.
On Mars, iron meteorites are more common than stony meteorites, and scientists speculate that could be because of their resistance to erosion. On Earth, stony meteorites are more common.
A smaller iron meteorite, called “Lebanon B,” also was included in the images.
The meteorites are the first found by the
Curiosity rover since it landed on Mars two years ago, according to The Daily Mail.
The pocked appearance of the meteorites may be caused by preferential erosion along crystalline boundaries or the
cavities may have contained olivine crystals, Discovery News reported.
NASA also released images of the Curiosity rover’s Chemistry and Camera instrument (ChemCam) firing laser shots at a baseball-size rock to examine its composition.
"This is so exciting! The ChemCam laser has fired more than 150,000 times on Mars, but this is the first time we see the plasma plume that is created,"
ChemCam Deputy Principal Investigator Sylvestre Maurice said in a statement.
The images of the laser shots were taken Saturday. Preliminary analysis shows that the rock contains silicon, aluminum, and sodium.
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