[1] Opportunity encountered the meteorite entirely by chance, in the vicinity of its own discarded heat shield (hence the name).

Mössbauer spectra show the iron to be primarily in metallic form, confirming its identity as an iron-nickel meteorite, composed of kamacite with 5–7% nickel.

This is essentially identical to the composition of a typical IAB iron meteorite found on Earth.

Meridiani Planum, the part of Mars where this meteorite was found, is suspected to have once been covered by a layer of material with a thickness of as much as 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) which has been subsequently eroded.

Two nickel-iron meteorites were identified by the Spirit rover (informally named "Allan Hills" and "Zhong Shan").