NASA's Curiosity Strikes First Laser On Mars With ChemCam

It's been around 2 weeks that Curiosity landed on Mars. After the #-Link-Snipped-# and a #-Link-Snipped-#, the rover is now all set to begin with its work. A ChemCam laser test was conducted on 19th August to check 'Chemistry and Camera' instrument of the rover. The instrument is capable of firing a laser and then using a camera to record the results. The rover hit a fist sized rock with 30 pulses of laser within 10 seconds, where each pulse had more than 1 million watts of power. Laser beam caused the rock atoms to excite and molted the exposed surface into plasma. An image was then clicked to depict the changes in rock before and after laser impact :

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The circular magnification shown in the image was taken before the laser fire and the square depicts the combined information of image taken before and after the hit, showing changes brought up in the rock as a result of laser. The wide view is taken by the navigation camera and the magnified images are clicked by ChemCam's camera. The process was initially performed to test the instrument, but it might provide research benefits as researchers are trying to figure out if the composition of rock changed after laser's impact. Changed composition could reveal the composition beneath the surface of planet.

Via: <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia16075.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">NASA - First Laser-Zapped Rock on Mars</a>