PIA05650: 'Vanilla' Under the Microscope
The image from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity features small grains one millimeter (0.04 inch) or less in size and somewhat lighter in color than those in other soil units observed in Eagle Crater.
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Exploration Rover (MER) 
 Spacecraft:  Opportunity
 Instrument:  Microscopic Imager 
Moessbauer Spectrometer 
 Product Size:  1024 x 1024 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  JPL 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA05650.tif (1.014 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA05650.jpg (104.5 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:
Part of the "Eagle Crater" soil survey, this three-centimeter by three-centimeter (1.2-inch by 1.2-inch) microscopic image of the target called "Vanilla" within the "Neopolitan" area was taken on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's 53rd sol, or day, on Mars. The image features small grains one millimeter (0.04 inch) or less in size and somewhat lighter in color than those in other soil units observed in the crater. Before this picture was taken, the rover's Moessbauer spectrometer took measurements of the target and pressed some of the grains into the surrounding finer-grained soil.

For mosaic of related microscopic images, see PIA05651.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Cornell

Image Addition Date:
2004-03-27