PIA12970: Coating on Rock Beside a Young Martian Crater
This image from the microscopic imager on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows details of the coating on a rock called 'Chocolate Hills,' which the rover found and examined at the edge of a young crater called 'Concepción.'
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Exploration Rover (MER) 
 Spacecraft:  Opportunity
 Instrument:  Microscopic Imager 
 Product Size:  942 x 947 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Cornell University 
 Other  
Information: 		 JPL News Release 2010-096 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA12970.tif (2.68 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA12970.jpg (116.2 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 image from the microscopic imager on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows details of the coating on a rock called "Chocolate Hills," which the rover found and examined at the edge of a young crater called "Concepción."

The rover took this image during the 2,150th Martian day, or sol, of its mission on Mars (Feb. 9. 2010). This target patch on Chocolate Hills is called "Aloya."

The view covers an area about 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) across. The color comes from imaging the same area with the panoramic camera and is false color to highlight differences in materials.

The coating includes a layer in which peppercorn-size spheres nicknamed "blueberries" are packed densely.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

Image Addition Date:
2010-03-24