PIA11757: Rover's Wheel Churns Up Bright Martian Soil (Vertical)
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Exploration Rover (MER)
 Spacecraft:  Spirit
 Instrument:  Panoramic Camera
 Product Size:  3726 x 4157 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  Cornell University 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA11757.tif (46.47 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA11757.jpg (1.127 MB)

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:

NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover 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.

The image is presented here as a vertical projection, as if looking straight down, and in false color, which brings out subtle color differences.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell

Image Addition Date:
2009-01-12