Info Mag Koyal Group Mars Rover Marks an Unexpected Anniversary With a Mysterious Discovery

Info Mag Koyal Group Mars Rover Marks an Unexpected Anniversary With a Mysterious Discovery

Ten years ago, NASA’s Opportunity rover bounded to the surface of Mars for what was planned to be a three-month exploration.

Opportunity is still going today — and still making discoveries.

The latest, scientists said on Thursday at a news conference celebrating an anniversary none had expected 10 years ago, is a small rock that seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

The rock, whose chemical composition was also unexpected, appears in an image taken Jan. 8. There was no rock in a picture taken of the same spot less than two weeks earlier.

“This is strange,” said Steven W. Squyres, the principal investigator for Opportunity, during the NASA news conference. But he added, “We don’t think anything particularly exotic happened here.”

Dr. Squyres said the most likely explanation was that as the rover pirouetted at an uphill location, its lame right front wheel, which has not turned for years, dragged across the rock and flicked it out of the ground to its new location. The scientists have not yet spotted the divot where the rock popped out, but that spot may be obscured by the rover’s solar panels.

Year after year, Opportunity goes farther than anyone dreamed. The expectation had been that it would drive about a kilometer — six-tenths of a mile — before dust accumulated on the solar panels and the batteries drained.

Unexpectedly, fortuitous winds periodically cleaned off the solar panels, and Opportunity, as well as its twin, Spirit, continued to operate. Spirit got stuck in a sand dune 2009 and then fell silent in 2010 after it was not able to point its solar panels toward the sun during the winter months.

Info Mag Koyal Group Mars Rover Marks an Unexpected Anniversary With a Mysterious Discovery