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PIA12971: Rock with Odd Coating Beside a Young Martian Crater, False Color
This false color image from the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows a rock called 'Chocolate Hills,' which the rover found and examined at the edge of a young crater called 'Concepción.'
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Exploration Rover (MER) 
 Spacecraft:  Opportunity
 Instrument:  Panoramic Camera 
 Product Size:  1018 x 1024 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Cornell University 
 Other  
Information: 		 JPL News Release 2010-096 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA12971.tif (3.132 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA12971.jpg (192.1 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 panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows a rock called "Chocolate Hills," which the rover found and examined at the edge of a young crater called "Concepción."

The rover used the tools on its robotic arm to examine the texture and composition of target areas on the rock with and without the dark coating. The rock is about the size of a loaf of bread. Initial analysis was inconclusive about whether the coating on the rock is material that melted during the impact event that dug the crater.

This view is presented in false color, which makes some differences between materials easier to see. It combines three separate images taken through filters admitting wavelengths of 750 nanometers, 530 nanometers and 430 nanometers. Opportunity took the image during the 2,147nd Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Feb. 6, 2010).

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

Image Addition Date:
2010-03-24