Oileán Ruaidh (pronounced "ill-lawn roo-ah") is a rock discovered on Mars in September 2010 by the ''Opportunity'' rover. It is a 45 centimeter wide dark rock that is thought to be an

iron meteorite Iron meteorites, also known as siderites, or ferrous meteorites, are a type of meteorite that consist overwhelmingly of an iron–nickel alloy known as meteoric iron that usually consists of two mineral phases: kamacite and taenite. Most iron met ...

. It was given the name ''Oileán Ruaidh'' ("Red Island") after the

Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

name of Oileán Ruaidh island in

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconne ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

PIA13418 - Oileán_Ruaidh meteorite on Mars (false colour)

External links

Mars Rover ''Opportunity'' Approaching Possible Meteorite
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oilean Ruaidh (Mars rock) Mars Exploration Rover mission Meteorites found on Mars Rocks on Mars Iron meteorites

See also

External links