Figure 1This image, taken by the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, shows the mark left by the rover's rock abrasion tool on the rock dubbed "Ebenezer," located in Gusev Crater at the "Columbia Hills." Scientists investigated the rock with the abrasion tool and determined its chemistry using the rover's alpha particle X-ray spectrometer instrument. Both instruments are located on the rover's robotic arm. Spirit took this image on its 236th martian day, or sol (Sept. 1, 2004). This is a true-color image generated from a composite of left-eye camera filters (750 to 430 nanometers).
Data on the graph (Figure 1) from the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer instrument on the robotic arm of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit reveal the elemental chemistry of two rocks, "Ebenezer" and "Clovis," (see PIA06837) in the "Columbia Hills." Scientists found, through comparison of the rocks' chemistry, that Ebenezer and Clovis have very different compositions from the rocks on the Gusev plains.
