Free Astronomy Magazine March-April 2021

32 MARS ROVERS T he dark, smooth-sur- faced object at the cen- ter of this image from the Mastcam was examined by Curiosity with laser pulses and confirmed to be an iron-nickel meteorite. [NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS] T his dark mound, called Ireson Hill, rises about 16 feet (5 meters) above redder layered out- crop material of the Murray formation on lower Mount Sharp. [NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS] environmental conditions also affecting the availabil- ity of those various iso- topes. Curiosity looks for possible traces left by ele- mentary forms of past life, such as abrupt changes in isotopic abundance that could be associated with metabolic processes, and investigates the composi- tion of rocks, soils and con- formations that could be linked to changes in the planet’s atmosphere over time. Curiosity is also char- acterizing the distribution of water, carbon dioxide and hydrogen in the at- mosphere and near the sur- face. It also measures sur-