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Until 2001, most basaltic bodies discovered in the asteroid belt were believed to originate from the asteroid Vesta (hence their name V-type), but the discovery of the asteroid 1459 Magnya revealed a slightly different chemical composition from the other basaltic asteroids discovered until then, suggesting a different origin. [80]
Chemical alteration of Martian rocks into carbonate and phyllosilicate minerals occurred earlier in Mars history when water was present in large quantities. [2] Orbital instruments and Landers not only identified new minerals but in some cases also confirmed the presence of minerals detected by the others.
A Martian meteorite is a rock that formed on Mars, was ejected from the planet by an impact event, and traversed interplanetary space before landing on Earth as a meteorite. As of September 2020 [update] , 277 meteorites had been classified as Martian, less than half a percent of the 72,000 meteorites that have been classified. [ 1 ]
The geological history of Mars can be broadly classified into many epochs, but the following are the three major ones: Noachian epoch (named after Noachis Terra): Formation of the oldest extant surfaces of Mars, 3.8 billion years ago to 3.5 billion years ago. Noachian age surfaces are scarred by many large impact craters.
Jupiter and Saturn have several large moons, such as Io, Europa, Ganymede and Titan, which may have originated from discs around each giant planet in much the same way that the planets formed from the disc around the Sun. [88] [89] [90] This origin is indicated by the large sizes of the moons and their proximity to the planet. These attributes ...
Names for all planetary features include a descriptor term, with the exception of two feature types. For craters, the descriptor term is implicit. Some features named on Io and Triton do not carry a descriptor term because they are ephemeral. In general, the naming convention for a feature type remains the same regardless of its size.
Impurities in the A-cloud formed Mars and the Moon (later captured by Earth), impurities in the B-cloud collapsed to form the outer planets, the C-cloud condensed into Mercury, Venus, Earth, the asteroid belt, moons of Jupiter, and Saturn's rings, while Pluto, Triton, the outer satellites of Saturn, the moons of Uranus, the Kuiper Belt, and the ...
Often rocks are named after the children or family members of astronauts or NASA employees. [citation needed] The rocks at the landing site of the Sojourner rover were given names of cartoon characters. Among them were Pop Tart, Ender, mini-Matterhorn, Wedge, Baker's Bench, Scooby Doo, Yogi, Barnacle Bill, Pooh Bear, Piglet, the Lamb, the Shark ...