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PIA05456: Charlie Flats
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows a region of the rock outcrop at Meridiani Planum, Mars, dubbed 'Charlie Flats.' This region contains a diverse assortment of small grains, pebbles and spherules, and both dark and light soil deposits.
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Exploration Rover (MER) 
 Spacecraft:  Opportunity
 Instrument:  Panoramic Camera 
 Product Size:  512 x 512 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Cornell University 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA05456.tif (787.5 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA05456.jpg (66.55 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

This image from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's panoramic camera shows a region of the rock outcrop at Meridiani Planum, Mars, dubbed "Charlie Flats." This region is a rich science target for Opportunity because it contains a diverse assortment of small grains, pebbles and spherules, as well as both dark and light soil deposits. The area seen here measures approximately 0.6 meters (2 feet) across. The smallest grains visible in this image are only a few millimeters in size. The approximate true color image was acquired on Sol 20 of Opportunity's mission with panoramic camera filters red, green and blue.

figure 1 for PIA05456 Click on image for larger view

Charlie Flats Spectra
The chart above shows examples of spectra, or light wave patterns, extracted from the region of the Meridiani Planum rock outcrop dubbed "Charlie Flats," a rich science target for the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The spectra were extracted from the similarly colored regions in the image on the left, taken by the rover's panoramic camera. The green circle identifies a bright, dust-like soil deposit. The red circle identifies a dark soil region. The yellow identifies a small, angular rock chip with a strong near-infrared band. The pink identifies a sphere-shaped pebble with a different strong near-infrared band. The cyan circle shows a dark, grayish pebble.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Cornell

Image Addition Date:
2004-02-26