i haven't posted much about work on curiosity recently (covid made me too sick to keep up with active operations for like a month and a half, and i've been slowly been easing back into it since mid-january), but i feel extremely privileged to be able to do a job where exploration and discovery is part of the job description. this is a rock named "cana dulce", which i spotted laying near the rover on january 23, which is when we took this picture. the shape of this rock suggests it's an iron meteorite that has just been laying on the martian surface for who knows how long. we got some multispectral and chemical data last week when we drove the rover back about 100 meters to try a second attempt at drilling in this general area, and it'll be interesting to figure out what it tells us about the history of this meteorite.
in reply to @TerraSabaea's post:
The idea of big meteorites just...laying around on the surface is still really weird to me.
Of course, the perception of meteorites as rare finds is partially from Earth's active processes, and partially from our own doing- in any place where humans spend a lot of time, any unusual or notable rock will have been collected long ago- but it's still strange to think about kg+ sized meteorites laying out in the open basically unmodified for eons.
there are so many of them too! we come across one every few weeks, all of them within ~25 m of where the rover parks on any given day. if you think about what a fractionally small portion of the surface you see that way, it's like they're everywhere. it's almost like a billion years of space litter strewn across the surface.
i love the sugar cane rock. also, happy for you to be feeling good enough to ease back into the work you find rewarding!
In addition to being scientifically cool, the smooth shapes also make my brain very happy! Very neat, and congratulations on easing back into work!