Aeolis Palus 003        -4.6408, 137.3986

Mars

Find: 2014 May 9

Classification: Iron meteorite

History: The MSL rover Curiosity observed 3 rocks, informally named Littleton (henceforth Aeolis Palus 001), Lebanon (henceforth Aeolis Palus 002), and Lebanon-B (henceforth Aeolis Palus 003), on Sol 634 and imaged them on Sols 637-641 using Mastcam and the Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) on ChemCam. Aeolis Palus 002 and 003 were observed from as close as ~11 m, and Aeolis Palus 001 from ~34.5 m. Aeolis Palus 001 and Aeolis Palus 002 are large (>1 m) boulders separated by ~20 m; Aeolis Palus 003 is a smaller (0.3 m) piece next to Aeolis Palus 002.

Physical characteristics: The Aeolis Palus 002 and 003 fragments are partially buried in the surrounding soil. The rocks have a lustrous blue-gray color and contain mm- to cm-sized irregularly shaped holes likely created by differential weathering. At high resolution, the surfaces are smooth with mm-scale, intermittent pockmarks. The mass of the Aeolis Palus 003 is estimated to be ~95 kg.

Geochemistry: All pieces/rocks exhibit surface textures and visible/near-infrared spectra (445-1012 nm) consistent with iron meteorites, similar to those observed by the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) missions. Aeolis Palus 002 (at ~12 m distance) and Aeolis Palus 001 (at ~36 m distance) were imaged with Mastcam at 3 times of day. This included multispectral images of Aeolis Palus 002 along with a 6-frame RMI mosaic and a single position on Aeolis Palus 001. Mastcam reflectance spectra of these rocks are red-sloped, with variations <550 nm related to specular reflections, similar to laboratory spectra of iron meteorites (and MER spectra of similar rocks) (Johnson et al., 2014; Schröder et al., 2008). The Aeolis Palus 001 and 002 rocks do not exhibit the patchy coatings associated with meteorites observed by MER.

Classification: Iron meteorite.

Specimens: Left in situ on Mars.