‘Heavy Metal! I found iron meteorite on Mars’: Curiosity rover discovers its first space rock on red planet - and it's huge

The Mars Curiosity rover has found its first meteorite on the red planet – a hefty, shiny rock dubbed ‘Lebanon’.

Made mostly of iron, the impressive meteorite is 7 feet (2 metres) wide and could help scientists uncover the reason why most meteorites on the red planet are iron rich.

The rock has generated excitement in Houston. On Twitter, the rover's handlers wrote: ‘Heavy Metal! I found an iron meteorite on Mars’, while Nasa spokesman Guy Webster described the rock as ‘huge’.

Images of the meteorite also revealed a smaller space rock nearby, which has been labelled ‘Lebanon B.’

Mr Webster added that a third meteorite, which is also about 7 feet (2 metres) wide and close to the Lebanon meteorites, may have been captured in a raw, unreleased image.

The Lebanon image show strange angular cavities in the surface of the rock, similar to other iron meteorites previously observed by Spirit and Opportunity rovers.

‘One possible explanation is that they resulted from preferential erosion along crystalline boundaries within the metal of the rock,’ Nasa said.

‘Another possibility is that these cavities once contained olivine crystals, which can be found in a rare type of stony-iron meteorites called pallasites.’

Nasa released a detailed photo of the Lebanon meteorites yesterday, however the Curiosity rover made the discovery of the space rocks on May 25.

They are the first space rocks on Mars discovered by the Curiosity rover since it landed on the red planet two years ago.

Iron meteorites are not rare among meteorites found on Earth, but they are less common than stony meteorites.

On Mars, iron meteorites dominate the small number of meteorites that have been found.

Part of the explanation could come from the resistance of iron meteorites to erosion processes on Mars.