The pyramid shaped rock Jake Matijevic found on Mars by NASA's rover widespread on earth
- From: news.com.au
- October 13, 2012
THE first rock found and examined by NASA's rover on Mars has a composition not seen before on the planet.
The rock, named after a a well-respected member of the Mars Curiosity rover team who died shortly after the rover landed on the red planet, has a composition not seen on the planet before.
Scientists have likened it to some unusual but well known rocks on Earth.
"(The rock is) widespread on Earth, on oceanic islands such as Hawaii, and St Helena, and the Azores; and also in rift zones like the Rio Grande and so forth. So, again, it's not common, but it's very well known," NASA mission co-ordinator Edward Stolper of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
"With only one Martian rock of this type, it is difficult to know whether the same processes were involved, but it is a reasonable place to start thinking about its origin.”
The Curiosity rover examined Jake Matijevic three weeks ago. Jake Matijevic also had an interesting, weathered appearance that drew attention.
"We thought that it would be a basaltic rock because we’ve found a lot of these volcanic rocks in past missions,” APXS Principal Investigator Ralf Gellert of the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.
“Volcanic rocks have a huge variety. But we were very surprised because the composition is not what we saw before. It was different, we were very surprised. There were way more elements that are representative of feldspar elements, low magnesium iron and nickel.”
As NASA said in a statement, rock compositions are important because they "tell stories about unseen environments and planetary processes."
"The rock possibly tells you something about Martain crust," Gellert said. "Maybe even how these rocks on the Martian surface formed. While we were surprised to find this kind of rock, it’s not really that surprising because there are many types of different volcanic rocks. And this is only one rock."
More tests will be done, however, before the rock’s properties, including the presence of feldspar, can be confirmed.