PIA05478: The Texture of El Capitan
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, shows a close up of the rock dubbed 'El Capitan,' located in the rock outcrop at Meridiani Planum. Seen are fine, parallel lamination in the upper area of the rock, and scattered sphere-shaped objects.
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Exploration Rover (MER) 
 Spacecraft:  Opportunity
 Instrument:  Panoramic Camera 
 Product Size:  1024 x 1024 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Cornell University 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA05478.tif (3.15 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA05478.jpg (192.8 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, taken by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, shows a close up of the rock dubbed "El Capitan," located in the rock outcrop at Meridiani Planum, Mars. This image shows fine, parallel lamination in the upper area of the rock, which also contains scattered sphere-shaped objects ranging from 1 to 2 millimeters (.04 to .08 inches) in size. There are also more abundant, scattered vugs, or small cavities, that are shaped like discs. These are about 1 centimeter (0.4 inches) long.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Cornell

Image Addition Date:
2004-03-02