NASA mission controllers suspect the rock in the center foreground of this image is an iron meteorite. The panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit took the image during the rover's 809th Martian day, or sol, on April 12.
The foreground rock, informally named Allan Hills, and a similar rock called Zhong Shan, just out of the field of view to the left, have a smoother texture and lighter tone than other rocks in the area.
The texture and glossiness of this pair reminded some members of the rover science team of a rock called Heat Shield Rock, observed more than a year ago by the Opportunity rover on the Meridiani Planum region. Examination of that rock's composition confirmed it was an iron meteorite.
Observations of Allan Hills and Zhong Shan with Spirit's miniature thermal emission spectrometer indicate they are very reflective, like Heat Shield Rock, which makes them the first likely meteorites found by Spirit.
Rocks in the vicinity of Spirit's winter station are being assigned informal names honoring Antarctic research stations. Zhong Shan is an Antarctic base established by China in 1989. Allan Hills is a site where meteorites are frequently collected because they are relatively easy to see as dark rocks on the bright Antarctic ice.
The most famous Allan Hills meteorite from Antarctica actually came from Mars and landed on Earth. If the Zhong Chang and Allan Hills rocks seen by Spirit do turn out to be iron-rich meteorites, they may have originated from an asteroid that landed on Mars.
The image is an approximately true-color rendering that combines images taken through the panoramic camera's 753-nanometer, 535-nanometer, and 432-nanometer filters. It is a portion of an image previously released.
