Curiosity finds massive metal meteorite!

Saw this on one of my news sources, though it was pretty neat! And no, it's not another "looks like a LIZARD!" topics, it's an actual, legitimate find! wouldn't mind discovering one of these out in the wilderness

NASA’s Curiosity rover has encountered a massive iron meteorite on Mars. At roughly two meters (6.5 feet) wide, and who knows how much beneath the surface, the meteorite (dubbed “Lebanon”) might be the largest ever discovered on Mars. In other news, Curiosity recently celebrated its first Martian anniversary on the Red Planet (almost two Earth years), and is now about two thirds of the way to its primary target of Mount Sharp, which it should reach in early 2015. Perhaps most interestingly, Curiosity recently passed into a region of terrain that is much more likely to yield exciting geology data and dramatic photos of the Martian landscape.

Sour ce

Here's another interesting fact

While iron meteorites are relatively rare on Earth, almost every meteorite discovered on Mars has been iron. No one quite knows why, but it’s probably down to iron meteorites being resistant to Martian erosion processes (wind, water, freeze/thaw, etc.) Without digging Lebanon up it’s hard to say just how big it is, but with a width of 6.5 feet, and presumably a sizable portion of it hidden beneath the surface, it’s probably pretty darn huge. According to NASA, the oddly shaped cavities on the surface of the meteorite are probably caused by erosion along crystalline boundaries — or alternatively that the meteorite is a rare example that started life near the core of an asteroid, and that the gaps once contained olivine crystals that have long eroded away.

cool stuff, very interesting thread as we here on earth are poised to begin mining outer space, Those meteorites are more than just rocks in this day and age, it's a ll about the $$$ now : )
S&F

a reply to: Ghost147

That's a big! Is it in a crater of any kind? Admittedly, I don't know much about the erosion process on Mars but I'm wondering if the crater could have been mostly eroded away, exposing this thing?

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: Ghost147

That's a big! Is it in a crater of any kind? Admittedly, I don't know much about the erosion process on Mars but I'm wondering if the crater could have been mostly eroded away, exposing this thing?

Interesting thought. I with you on not knowing enough about mars. All I know is that they have those crazy, global sandstorms. I wouldn't be surprised if one of those uncovered this. But, it would be cool if it was nice and fresh

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: Ghost147

That's a big! Is it in a crater of any kind? Admittedly, I don't know much about the erosion process on Mars but I'm wondering if the crater could have been mostly eroded away, exposing this thing?

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: Ghost147

That's a big! Is it in a crater of any kind? Admittedly, I don't know much about the erosion process on Mars but I'm wondering if the crater could have been mostly eroded away, exposing this thing?

If there had been water on Mars, the crater could have formed on the water, and the meteorite then sinks to the ocean bed, which is where it is now.

Alternatively, the crater rim and depression would have formed, then were blown away by the wind.

Now that's what I call heavy metal \m/

Curiosity finds cha ching! I bet that rock is worth a large fortune!
S & F Great reading.

originally posted by: Ghost147

Interesting thought. I with you on not knowing enough about mars. All I know is that they have those crazy, global sandstorms. I wouldn't be surprised if one of those uncovered this. But, it would be cool if it was nice and fresh

Best I can think of the Mars sandstorms would be like a myriad of money spiders hitting you in the face, you wouldn't feel so much, just aware they are there. However an Iron/mixture meteorite is not so sticky.
Saying that it became uncovered is interesting though because the thing is like a cheese, that means other stuff in there has been eroded or degraded in some way, and the other rovers have found similar meteorites.

"Lebanon", eh? I wonder if it was named after Israel's Iron Dome defence program, which primarily intercepts Hezbollah rockets fired from Lebanon.

This find isn't exactly news, but it's nice to see the official well-processed image that brings out so many details. The meteorite was found in May this year: mars.nasa.gov...
As you can see from the image, there's actually another one lying nearby.

a reply to: Ghost147

I dunno, it looks like a rock to me.....

.....

And that cameo appearance as a troll, the performance is dedicated to Arken, that must have the skin of a rock to keep sharing his genius pattern matching ability with the Plebs. One day may he spot something that is NOT obvious and will have the autodebunkers the laughing stock of the world.

How awesome would it be if that meteorite was from Earth, knocked off 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs died out?

originally posted by: wildespace
"Lebanon", eh? I wonder if it was named after Israel's Iron Dome defence program, which primarily intercepts Hezbollah rockets fired from Lebanon.

This find isn't exactly news, but it's nice to see the official well-processed image that brings out so many details. The meteorite was found in May this year: mars.nasa.gov...
As you can see from the image, there's actually another one lying nearby.

I think it was named Lebanon because it's shape resembles a map of the country.

thats probably been there for a looooooong time, a crater could have worn away quite easily.

Heck it could have landed millions of years ago, been buried and only now being uncovered.

It certainly is a monster though, i bet it was quite the spectacle when it came down. 6 foot wide of smoldering iron hurting down at whatever insane speed? I would have LOVED to have seen that!!!!