Curiosity rover finds metallic meteorite on Mars - Space.com

The space rock is about 1 foot (0.3 meters) wide and consists primarily of iron and nickel, Curiosity team members announced via Twitter on Thursday (Feb. 2).

The car-sized Curiosity landed inside Mars' 96-mile-wide (154 kilometers) Gale Crater in August 2012, on a quest to determine if the area could have supported Earth-like life long ago.

But Curiosity's cousin Perseverance, which landed inside a different Mars crater in February 2021, is conducting a life search, and also collecting dozens of samples for future return to Earth.

Since September 2014, Curiosity has been climbing the flanks of Mount Sharp, a huge massif that rises about 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) into the sky from Gale's center.

Curiosity's observations of these rocks could help scientists better understand when and how Gale Crater, and the Red Planet at large, transitioned from a relatively warm and wet place to the frigid desert it is today, mission team members have said.

Mike Wall is the author of " Out There(opens in new tab)" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life.