Mars Rover Opportunity has stumbled across something interesting. It may even be a meteorite sitting there in the open.
Opportunity has been busy at work inspecting entry debris -- hardware that fell to Mars during the robot's entry, descent, and landing over a year ago.
Not too distant from the debris field, the odd-looking rock sits alone atop the sandy terrain. Squyres cautioned that it is too early to identify the rock as a meteorite.
The next step by rover scientists is to carefully examine the object with Opportunity's Instrument Deployment Device, or IDD. This robot arm is tipped with scientific instruments.
Once extended out to the object, the arm-mounted devices can study the object's structure in great detail. The instruments on the IDD are the Microscopic Imager, the Mssbauer Spectrometer, the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer, and a Rock Abrasion Tool.
Of course it might be a black monolith left by an ancient star-faring civilization... but most probably not. :)
- Art Neuro
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