Rover's wheel churns up bright Martian soil
Thu Jan 15, 2009 at 08:56 UTC
Spirit acquired this mosaic on the mission's 1,202nd Martian day, or sol (May 21, 2007), while investigating the area east of the elevated plateau known as "Home Plate" in the "Columbia Hills." The mosaic shows an area of disturbed soil, nicknamed "Gertrude Weise" by scientists, made by Spirit's stuck right front wheel.
The trench exposed a patch of nearly pure silica, with the composition of opal. It could have come from either a hot-spring environment or an environment called a fumarole, in which acidic, volcanic steam rises through cracks. Either way, its formation involved water, and on Earth, both of these types of settings teem with microbial life.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell
High resolution image (1.4 MB)
Spirit acquired this mosaic with the panoramic camera's 753-nanometer, 535-nanometer, and 432-nanometer filters. The view presented here is an approximately true-color rendering.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell
High resolution image (1.1 MB)
The image is presented here as a vertical projection, as if looking straight down, and in false color, which brings out subtle color differences.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell
High resolution image (1.5 MB)
The image is presented here in false color that is used to bring out subtle differences in color.
| Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory | |
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