File:Heat Shield Rock panorama.jpg

摘要

While traversing a vast empty plain in 2005 in Meridiani Planum, one of Earth's rolling robots on Mars found a surprise when visiting the location of its own metallic heat shield discarded last year during descent. The surprise is the rock visible on the lower left, found to be made mostly of dense metals iron and nickel. The large cone-shaped object behind it -- and the flank piece on the right -- are parts of Opportunity's jettisoned heat shield. Smaller shield debris is also visible. Scientists do not think that the basketball-sized metal "Heat Shield Rock" originated on Mars, but rather is likely an ancient metallic meteorite. In hindsight, finding a meteorite in a vast empty dust plain on Mars might be considered similar to Earth meteorites found on the vast empty ice plains of Antarctica. The finding raises speculations about the general abundance of rocks on Mars that have fallen there from outer space - from [1].

许可协议

	本文件完全由NASA创作，在美国属于公有领域。根据NASA的版权方针，NASA的材料除非另有声明否则不受版权保护。（参见Template:PD-USGov/zh、NASA版权方针页面或JPL图片使用方针。）
	警告: 使用NASA的标志、徽章、徽标等受到美国法律14 CFR 1221的限制。 NASA网站大量存储来自苏联或俄罗斯航天机构的图片，以及其他非美国的航天机构图片。这些文件不一定属于公有领域。 根据哈勃空间望远镜的数据制作的材料，如果不是明确声明由STScI提供，则可能受到版权保护。[2]参见{{PD-Hubble}}和{{Cc-Hubble}}。 SOHO（ESA和NASA）联合项目表示，由旗下的探测器创作的材料受版权保护，且对于商业性非教育目使用材料需要授权。[3] 每日一天文图（APOD）网站上展示的图片可能受到版权保护。[4] 国家太空科学数据中心（NSSDC）网站据信存储了受版权保护内容。其图库常见问答表明除非另有声明，图库的所有图片都属于公有领域。