
Opportunity will examine this second-order spacerock with its alpha-particle X-ray spectrometer to see what it's made of, and therefore where it came from. Those worried about the science-fiction effects of bathing an other-worldly artifact in radiation from such a polysyllabic device should remember that a) This is science, not fiction; b) It's on Mars anyway. If we do release some extra-planetary horror we're got a few hours to hire Bruce Willis.
That this happened at all is a triumph of human curiosity, coincidence, and extremely well put together space engineering: three factors we're going to need to become what we can. Here's hoping we keep up the effort in future space scheduling. (Daily Galaxy)