Cacao, an iron-nickel space rock, is about 1 foot (0.3 meters) wide. Another metallic meteorite on Mars has been discovered by NASA’s Curiosity rover.
On February 2, Curiosity team members on Tweets. The team describes the structure meteorite and announced its name in the tweet. According to the tweet Cacao is about 1 foot (0.3 meters) wide. It consists primarily of iron and nickel.
When did Curiosity go to Mars?
In August 2012, the car-sized rover “Curiosity” landed on Mars’ 96-mile-wide (154-kilometer) Gale Crater, on a mission to determine whether the area could have supported Earth-like life long ago.
Curiosity research and findings have helped the research team to answer a lot of questions. One of which is demonstrating that Gale once hosted a potentially habitable lake-and-stream system. Furthermore, this watershed likely lasted for millions of years, possibly allowing time for the emergence of Martian microbes. Curiosity also finds a metallic meteorite on Mars.
The rover is not specifically looking for evidence of past or present microbial life on Mars. However, Curiosity’s cousin Perseverance, which landed in a different Mars crater in February 2021, is searching for life and collecting dozens of samples for future return to Earth.
What is the current status of the Curiosity rover?
Curiosity has been climbing the flanks of Mount Sharp, a massive massif that rises about 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) into the sky from Gale’s center, since September 2014.
The rover recently reached sulfate-rich veins that started in fairly dry situations, marking a significant breakthrough on this journey.
Curiosity has been observing specific rocks and the metallic meteorite on Mars. These observations may improve scientists’ understanding of Gale Crater and Mars. They aim to learn when and how Mars transformed from a warm and wet environment to a freezing desert. This information is provided by members of the Curiosity mission team.
According to the report, Curiosity has so far driven 18.31 miles (29.47 km) on Mars. Several other metallic meteorites have been discovered by the car-size rover during its grand space journey, as the research team noted in several other photo-filled tweets on Thursday.
Tweets on metallic meteorite on Mars!
Along with a photo of the Curiosity team wrote on Twitter: “We’re calling it ‘Cacao,’ “.
Thursday’s Tweet says: “Here’s another meteorite I found in 2016. It’s called ‘Egg Rock,’ aka the golf ball,” Another Thursday tweet reads: “And while my team calls this 7-foot-long meteorite ‘Lebanon,’ I call it THE BEAST,”
On May 2014 Curiosity discovered Lebanon or The Beast. However, NASA didn’t release images of the massive rock until July of that year. Curiosity discovered the Beast and two nearby stones as the first Metallic meteorite on Mars.
