PDS logoPlanetary Data System
PDS Information
Find a Node - Use these links to navigate to any of the 8 publicly accessible PDS Nodes.

This bar indicates that you are within the PDS enterprise which includes 6 science discipline nodes and 2 support nodes which are overseen by the Project Management Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Each node is led by an expert in the subject discipline, supported by an advisory group of other practitioners of that discipline, and subject to selection and approval under a regular NASA Research Announcement.
Click here to return to the Photojournal Home Page Click here to view a list of Photojournal Image Galleries Photojournal_inner_header
Latest Images  |  Spacecraft & Technology  |  Animations  |  Space Images App  |  Feedback  |  Photojournal Search  

PIA05625: "Last Chance" Evidence of Ancient Water Flow
This image from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows a close-up of texture interpreted as cross-lamination evidence that sediments forming the rock were laid down in flowing water on Mars' Meridiani Planum.
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Exploration Rover (MER) 
 Spacecraft:  Opportunity
 Instrument:  Microscopic Imager 
Panoramic Camera 
 Product Size:  386 x 234 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  JPL 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA05625.tif (88.2 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA05625.jpg (14.98 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:

figure 1 for PIA05625
Figure 1

This view of the lower portion of the martian rock called "Last Chance" (see PIA05482) shows a close-up of texture interpreted as cross-lamination evidence that sediments forming the rock were laid down in flowing water. NASA's Opportunity took the original image during the rover's 38th sol in Mars' Meridiani Planum region (March 2, 2004).

In the central part of the image, the dip of fine layers at angles to each other (cross laminae) suggests that the water that created the cross-lamination was flowing from left to right. Interpretive blacklines trace these cross-laminae. Interpretive blue lines indicate boundaries of possible sets of cross-laminae (Figure 1).

figure 2 for PIA05625
Figure 2

A three-dimensional visualization of this portion of the rock offers additional details of the cross-lamination (see PIA05626). The visualization and the image from the panoramic camera are compared to show a point of correlation (yellow arrow, Figure 2).

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Cornell/ARC

Image Addition Date:
2004-03-24