Mars meteorite?

[telecasterguru (Frank)]

Intersting article in the paper this morning.
Mars robot, Opportunity, has found what appears to be a meteorite on the surface of Mars.
Problem is that a meteorite is defined as "a rock fragment formed from a meteor of sufficient size to reach the earth's surface without burning up completely in the atmosphere".
Therefore what do you call a rock from space reaches the Martian surface?

Frank

[OneOfOne (Trevor)]

I believe it is still called a meteorite, or at least in all of the material I have read. They have probably loosened up the definition and made it not so Earth centric.

Actually they have found a number of meteorites on Mars now, one of the largest was an iron/nickel one so they couldn't sample it as it would have damaged the erosion tool. It was found just behind the heatshield of Opurtunity in January 2005 (was this the one in the article?), Spirit has found at least 2. They even found a few on the Moon during the Apollo missions.

[seanliddelow (Sean)]

Marsorite, Mastroid?

[seanliddelow (Sean)]

Originally Posted by OneOfOne

I believe it is still called a meteorite, or at least in all of the material I have read. They have probably loosened up the definition and made it not so Earth centric.

Actually they have found a number of meteorites on Mars now, one of the largest was an iron/nickel one so they couldn't sample it as it would have damaged the erosion tool. It was found just behind the heatshield of Opurtunity in January 2005 (was this the one in the article?), Spirit has found at least 2. They even found a few on the Moon during the Apollo missions.

The mastorite he is talking about was discovered by oppurtunity very recently. Scientists are yet to know if it is a metorite.

http://www.universetoday.com/2009/08...rge-meteorite/