NASA ’s InSight investigation has only been on Marsfor a weekor so , but it ’s already providing somedazzling imagesof Elysium Planitia , a flat champaign near the Martian equator .

Never one to be shown up by the new shaver on the block , a fascinating unexampled image hasbeen produced by Curiosity , NASA ’s veteran Mars bird of passage that ’s been on the Red Planet since 2012 . In the image , taken on November 26 , we see an unusually shiny object lay on the typically crimson and dusty Martian ground .

Could it be alien ? Nope , gloomy , it ’s almost certainly not any sign of extra - terrestrial life . To figure out the straight nature of this unknown rock , researchers on the project say that Curiosity will seek to analyze a sample of the objective , called " Little Colonsay " , for further analysis .

“ The planning team retrieve it might be a meteorite because it is so shiny . But looks can cozen , ” NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory say in astatement . “ chemic analytic thinking is need to confirm its nature . ”

rarity has a particularly interesting elbow room to comport out its chemical depth psychology . Using itsChemCam instrument , it fires a laser at the material and checks out the result vaporize cloth to see what it ’s made of . It used this technique on a samplediscovered in November 2016and discovered that it had a nickel - iron penning .

Curiosity hasdocumented a lowly numberof suspected meteorite on the Martian surface . in the first place this year , NASA ’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took a really arresting image of acolossal meteorite impacton Mars . Of course , the Red Planet is no stranger to meteorites . Mars ’ atmospheric pressure , on fair , is about 1 pct of Earth ’s . It ’s therefore easier for meteorites to reach the flat coat entire .

The nature of these meteorite seems to be a little different from the ace back home too . Only 4.4 percent of meteorites found on Earth are branding iron , while   most meteorite are rocky . On Mars , however , iron meteorites overlook the small telephone number of meteorite that have been found . It ’s not exactly clean why , but it could be to do with Fe meteorite being more resistant to the abrasive corrosion processes on Mars .