Opportunity Finishes Studying Oileán Ruaidh

Officials at the American space agency say that the Martian rover Opportunity has just finished studying the sixth meteorite it found on the Red Planet, and that it is now back on course, driving for the Endeavour Crater.

The space rock, which was later determined to be an iron meteorite, was discovered by the exploration robot in September 2010. NASA experts wanted to take a good look at it before Opportunity moved on.

The first images showing the structure, called Oileán Ruaidh, were taken on Sol 2363 (September 16), when the rover was on its 2,363rd Martian day of mission on the Red Planet.

“This view, presented in approximately true color, combines component images taken through three Pancam filters admitting wavelengths of 601 nanometers, 535 nanometers and 482 nanometers,” NASA officials say in a press release.

The small iron meteorite was then approached by the machine, which then proceeded to use the microscopic imager and the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer instruments in order to study it.

Both of these tools are located on the robot's extensible arm, and they are especially suited for running studies pertaining to the texture and composition of rocks.

Extensive studies of the spectral readings mission controllers obtained from the two instruments revealed that Oileán Ruaidh is most likely a nickel-iron meteorite.

Scientists at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, who manage Opportunity, said that the rover left the rock's vicinity on Sol 2374 (September 28).

The robot then proceeded to drive about 100 meters (328 feet), which brought it closer to its destination. However, is still has a long way to go before it reaches the Crater.

Researchers are now beginning to question how is it that the rover keeps finding space rocks that are located so close near-by.

Since arriving on Mars, in 2004, Opportunity drove about 21 miles, and it found six meteorites along the way. Now experts are wondering whether all these objects are not part of a much larger impactor.

This would make sense as far as explaining the distances between the meteorites go, but it would still not explain where they came from, or how.

In addition to this type of investigation, scientists can now also start modeling how the Martian atmosphere looked like in the past.

Given that each meteorite that makes it to the surface of a planet bears the marks of reentry, experts believe they can gather some important data about the chemical composition that the Martian atmosphere had when these space rocks struck.