American space agency NASA is sending an ancient meteorite back to its home planet, and then blowing it up. The meteorite, not the planet.
A small piece of a larger meteorite that crashed to Earth millions of years ago is headed back to Mars, where it originated. It’s part of NASA’s 2020 Mars rover mission.
The part about it getting blown up? That’s completely true, but it’s not just to make an example for the other Mars rocks. It’s actually part of the calibration process for the rover’s hyper-sensitive laser measurement device, known as SHERLOC.
While the rock is quite rare here on Earth, with only 200 or so positively identified chunks of Mars having ever been found, it’s no big deal on Mars, because Mars is made of… Mars rocks.