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A NUCLEAR invader has opened fire on Mars, and Earthlings couldn鈥檛 be happier.
On 19 August the plutonium-powered Mars rover, Curiosity, shot its first laser beam at a fist-sized rock nicknamed Coronation.
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The laser is part of the rover鈥檚 ChemCam instrument, which will work out the composition of rocks by zapping them to produce a small puff of plasma and analysing that using a telescopic camera and spectrometers.
Coronation was selected largely as target practice for ChemCam, but project scientists will analyse the data to find out more about the differences between Martian dust and the underlying rock.
Once Curiosity starts driving across Mars, ChemCam will take aim at bedrock exposed in a burn scar scoured by the rover鈥檚 landing gear. Then, the rover will go to a site dubbed Glenelg, where three rock types appear to meet.
鈥淕lenelg simply looks distinctive and interesting,鈥� project scientist John Grotzinger said in a press conference last week. 鈥淢ostly it just looks cool.鈥�