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Curiosity Finds Iron Meteorite on Mars
- JoeAltmaier 12y agoLooks huge; but there's no scale. So many pictures from Mars lack context like that.
- gus_massa 12y agoIt's difficult to guess the scale, but at least the caption has some information: > This rock encountered by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is an iron meteorite called "Lebanon," similar in shape and luster to iron meteorites found on Mars by the previous generation of rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. Lebanon is about 2 yards or 2 meters wide (left to right, from this angle). The smaller piece in the foreground is called "Lebanon B."
- Crito 12y agoDepending on how much of that thing is buried, it sounds like it could be comparable to Ahnighito (3.4m x 2.1m x 1.7m): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ahnighito_AMNH,_34_tons_meteorite.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ahnighito_AMNH,_34_tons_me... or the Willamette Meteorite (3m x 2m x 1.3m): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willamette_Meteorite#mediaviewer/File:Willamette_Meteorite_AMNH.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willamette_Meteorite#mediaviewe...
- shankysingh 12y agoThat reminded of this article, http://petapixel.com/2012/09/13/1909-lincoln-penny-used-to-calibrate-the-mars-curiosity-rovers-camera-on-mars/ http://petapixel.com/2012/09/13/1909-lincoln-penny-used-to-c... "Coin" being used for camera calibration on rovers. Not sure if they can be used to show scale too.
- kevinwang 12y agoFunny that they chose the penny because it's classically used in geology to combat the issue of scale in photographs, which it seems is an issue in Mars too.
- bcbrown 12y agoThat's exactly why it was chosen.
- aidos 12y agoAn article about that was on HN just yesterday. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8033760 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8033760
- S4M 12y agoThe article says "Lebanon is about 2 yards or 2 meters wide (left to right, from this angle)", Lebanon being the largest meteorite (the other one is called Lebanon B).
- wdr1 12y agoNot a lot of bananas on Mars.
- ChuckMcM 12y agoOne edge of the metorite seems to bear the inscription 'Beagle 2'
- sillysaurus3 12y agoBeagle 2?
- a3n 12y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_2
- jpeg_hero 12y ago"Lebanon"? Lebanon because it looks bombed out? Not really PC. Most non-PC naming by Americans since calling UBL "Geronimo"
- martey 12y agoSince a proximate meteorite is called Littleton, http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/mars/lebanon-meteorite-curiosity.html http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/mars/lebano... , my guess would be that both are named after towns in Colorado.
- ceejayoz 12y agoOr it could be named after one of the dozens of Lebanons in the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon_(disambiguation) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon_(disambiguation)
- shankysingh 12y agoWow, so many cities with same name. Must give rise to loads of issues when geo-locating "Lebanon". I wonder how Google maps figures out which "lebanon" I searched for.
- lbotos 12y agoI assume that it assumes based on your GeoIP location which to show first. (Guessing)
- geetee 12y agoIt must be really depressing to find something offensive in the most mundane details.
- sliverstorm 12y agoBeing offended gives some people a rush. He could just be an addict.