PIA20324: Sandstone Nodule Beside 'Naukluft Plateau' on Mount Sharp, Mars
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
 Spacecraft:  Curiosity
 Instrument:  MAHLI
 Product Size:  1609 x 1198 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  Malin Space Science Systems
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA20324.tif (5.785 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA20324.jpg (491.8 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:

The nodule in the center of this image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows individual grains of sand and (on the left) laminations from the sandstone deposit in which the nodule formed.

The site is an exposure of knobbly textured sandstone of the Stimson geological unit on Curiosity's onramp to "Naukluft Plateau." The image was taken on March 10, 2016, during the 1,277th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars.

This nodule is about one inch (two centimeters) across. It appears within wider context in the left foreground of a Sol 1276 view (PIA20322) from Curiosity Mast Camera (Mastcam).

MAHLI was built by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover.

More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Image Addition Date:
2016-03-11