Aeolis Mons 002        -4.70767125, 137.3580139

Mars

Find: 2017 Jan 18

Classification: Iron meteorite

History: The MSL rover Curiosity observed a very small piece, informally named Ames Knob (henceforth Aeolis Mons 002), on sol 1577. The rock was about 3.4 m from the rover, and observed with Mastcam and ChemCam (LIBS chemical analysis and RMI). The Aeolis Mons 002 location is approximately 350 m south of Aeolis Mons 001 (Egg Rock).

Physical characteristics: The meteorite is a small (7.5 × 8.0 cm), irregularly shaped fragment seen only from one side. It has a blue-gray color, an overall massive appearance, with slight pitting, and without clear, well-preserved regmaglypts. The mass of the meteorite is estimated to be ~1.8 kg.

Geochemistry: The meteorite was probed with a 1x3 ChemCam Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) raster with accompanying Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) images. The LIBS spectra show prominent Fe and Ni peaks. The Fe and Ni peak intensities were nearly constant over the three probed points, which were spaced 14 mm apart across the raster. The Ni/Fe peak ratios for all three points are similar to Chinga, an ataxite with 16.7 wt.% Ni analyzed with a replica of ChemCam in the laboratory at the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP) (Wiens et al. 2017).

Classification: Iron meteorite.

Specimens: Left in situ on Mars