Held in a scoop on the rover's mechanical arm, the tablespoon of pulverized gray rock offers planetary scientists their first sample from the planet's interior, where it may have been sheltered from the harsh surface chemistry and ultra-violet radiation.

WSJ: Rover on Mars Extracts First Rock-Core Sample

Excited by the possibilities of her recent research results, Karen, a chemical engineering professor, decided it was time to file for patents on her new surface chemistry technology and create a business with a faculty colleague and two graduate students.

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In the months ahead, scientists expect to probe beneath the planet's surface crust for evidence of chemistry favorable to microbial life, using the robot rover's unique high-speed drill.

WSJ: NASA's Curiosity Rover Lands on Mars

It will also examine the general chemistry of the sub-surface layers, to see if it is within the limits tolerable by living things on Earth.

ECONOMIST: Exploring Mars

Its texture and chemistry set it apart from all previous objects picked up off the surface of Earth but known to originate on the Red Planet.

BBC: Mars meteorite 'Black Beauty' is in a class of its own

The result, they claim in a paper that will appear this month in the Journal of Physical Chemistry, is a nanofibre material with an extremely high ratio of surface-area to volume.

ECONOMIST: Space-age soot

The publication was commissoned in conjunction with Surface Ocean - Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS), the International Commission on Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution (ICACGP), The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR).

UNESCO: MEDIA SERVICES