Mars Curiosity Rover Fires Laser, Zaps Rock (Pew, Pew!)

Mars Curiosity Rover Fires Laser, Zaps Rock (Pew, Pew!): "After getting its bearings on the Red Planet over the past two weeks, the Mars Curiosity rover on Sunday provided fans with a little action courtesy of its very own laser.
Over the weekend, the rover fired its laser for the first time on Mars in order to blast a fist-sized rock known as "Coronation." Curiosity used is Chemistry and Camera instrument, dubbed ChemCam, to hit Coronation with 30 laser pulses in a 10-second period. Each pulse delivers more than 1 million watts of power for about five one-billionths of a second, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab."