NASA's Curiosity rover captured the first-ever asteroid spotted from the surface of Mars.
The image actually contains two asteroids called Ceres and Vesta, a NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory news release reported.
The asteroid pair appears as two "faint streaks" in the image, which was taken by Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) using a 12 second exposure.
"This imaging was part of an experiment checking the opacity of the atmosphere at night in Curiosity's location on Mars, where water-ice clouds and hazes develop during this season," camera team member Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, College Station, said in the news release. "The two Martian moons were the main targets that night, but we chose a time when one of the moons was near Ceres and Vesta in the sky."
The two asteroids are relatively far away from our own planet, and much larger than what is usually seen in near-Earth objects.
NASA is currently working on an asteroid redirect mission that will send a robot driven by an "advanced solar electric propulsion system" to a nearby asteroid and capture it. If capturing the object is not possible the robot could collect a small boulder from its surface.
The final part of the mission will be to "redirect" the object into a new orbit around the moon.
Live astronauts may also take a trip to visit a real asteroid aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft.
They will collect samples and return them to Earth for further study.
NASA is working on the "grand challenge," which aims to identify as many potentially-threatening asteroids as possible.
"NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity to assess ancient habitable environments and major changes in Martian environmental conditions. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, built the rover and manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the rover's Mastcam," the news release reported.
