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PIA05831: Door to 'Pilbara'
This image taken by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the hole drilled by the rover's rock abrasion tool into the rock dubbed 'Pilbara.' A sliced 'blueberry,' or spherule, which is darker and harder than the rest of the rock is visible.
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Exploration Rover (MER) 
 Spacecraft:  Opportunity
 Instrument:  Microscopic Imager 
 Product Size:  966 x 921 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  JPL 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA05831.tif (885.6 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA05831.jpg (215.3 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 mosaic of five images taken by the microscopic imager on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on sol 87 shows the hole drilled by the rover's rock abrasion tool into the rock dubbed "Pilbara." A sliced "blueberry," or spherule, which is darker and harder than the rest of the rock, can be seen near the center of the hole. The rock abrasion process left a pile of rock powder around the side of the hole, and to a lesser degree, inside the hole. The grinding penetrated an area of rock about 7.2 millimeters (about 0.28 inches) deep and 4.5 centimeters (about 1.8 inches) in diameter.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Cornell/USGS

Image Addition Date:
2004-04-28