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PIA05177: Adirondack's Finer Side
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit close-up look at the martian rock dubbed Adirondack. The rock's smooth and pitted surface is revealed in this first-ever microscopic image of a rock on another planet.
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Exploration Rover (MER) 
 Spacecraft:  Spirit
 Instrument:  Microscopic Imager 
 Product Size:  1024 x 1024 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  JPL 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA05177.tif (1.023 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA05177.jpg (161.1 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 close-up look at the martian rock dubbed Adirondack was captured by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's microscopic imager before Spirit stopped communicating with Earth on the 18th martian day, or sol, of its mission. The rock's smooth and pitted surface is revealed in this first-ever microscopic image of a rock on another planet. The examined patch of rock is 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) across; features within the rock as small as 1/10 of a millimeter (.04 inch) can be detected. The rover's shadow appears at the bottom of the image.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/US Geological Survey

Image Addition Date:
2004-01-30