**[Curiosity rover finds metallic meteorite on Mars](https://www.space.com/curiosity-rover-metallic-mars-meteorite-cacao)** The iron-nickel space rock, nicknamed **'Cacao,'** is about 1 foot (0.3 meters) wide. It is believed that such meteorites are fragments of the cores of disrupted planetesimals that formed in the early Solar System, thus their study allows us to learn more about the processes of planet and satellite formation in the Solar System. The car-sized Curiosity landed inside Mars' 96-mile-wide (154 kilometers) Gale Crater in August 2012, on a quest to determine if the area could have supported Earth-like life long ago. The robot's work over the past decade has answered that question in the affirmative, showing that Gale hosted a potentially habitable lake-and-stream system in the ancient past. What's more, this watershed likely persisted for millions of years at a stretch, possibly allowing time for the rise of Martian microbes.