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PIA05319: The Trench Throws a Dirt Clod at Scientists
NASA's Opportunity rover shows soil clods exposed in the upper wall of the trench dug by its right front wheel. The presence of soil clods implies weak bonding between individual soil grains.
 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:  PIA05319.tif (1.05 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA05319.jpg (193.5 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:
This picture, obtained by the microscopic imager on NASA's Opportunity rover during sol 24, February 17 PST, shows soil clods exposed in the upper wall of the trench dug by Opportunity's right front wheel on sol 23. The clods were not exposed until the trench was made. The presence of soil clods implies weak bonding between individual soil grains. The chemical agent or mineral that causes the dirt to bind together into a clod, which scientists call the "bonding agent," is currently unknown. Moessbauer and alpha particle X-ray spectrometer measurements of this spot, planned for sol 25, might help explain the bonding, which would ultimately help the rover team understand how geological processes vary across the red planet. In any case, the bonds between soil grains here cannot be very strong because the wheel dug down through this layer with little trouble.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Cornell/USGS

Image Addition Date:
2004-02-18