Opportunity Views Windblown Ripple 'Scylla'

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell.

Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 29, 2005
These images were acquired by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity using its panoramic camera on sol 644 (November 15, 2005) and its navigation camera on sol 645 (November 16, 2005, pictured).

The view looks towards the east, covering a large wind-blown ripple called "Scylla", and other nearby ripples and patches of brighter rock strewn with dark cobbles.

Panoramic camera bands L4 (601-nanometer wavelength), L5 (535 nanometers), and L6 (482 nanometers) correspond to red, green, and blue bands in the false-color image.

The blue-tinted colors associated with the scours and ripple crests are probably due to the presence of basaltic sands mixed with hematite-rich spherules. Color patterns on the larger ripple flanks are caused by different amounts of reddish dust.

The larger ripple flanks have an intricate mixture of erosional scours and secondary ripples extending downward from the main ripple crests, suggesting that these ripples have most recently encountered a period of wind erosion and transport of their outer layers.

For comparison, the same panoramic camera image is shown, but in this case rendered as an approximately true-color composite.

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Spirit Heading To 'Home Plate'

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 09, 2006
Last week Spirit completed robotic-arm work on "El Dorado." The rover used all three of its spectrometers plus the microscopic imager for readings over the New Year's weekend.

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