Catalog Page for PIA16218

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PIA16218: Olivine on Earth

$The semi-precious gem peridot is a variety of olivine. NASA's Curiosity rover shows the diffraction signature, or 'fingerprint,' of the mineral olivine, shown here on Earth in the form of tumbled crystals.$

Mission:	Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
Instrument:	CheMin
Product Size:	2048 x 1536 pixels (w x h)
Produced By:	JPL
Full-Res TIFF:	PIA16218.tif (9.44 MB)
Full-Res JPEG:	PIA16218.jpg (166.4 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:

The Martian soil examined by the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument on NASA's Curiosity rover shows the diffraction signature, or "fingerprint," of the mineral olivine, shown here on Earth in the form of tumbled crystals about a quarter-inch (several millimeters) in size. The semi-precious gem peridot is a variety of olivine.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, and built Curiosity and CheMin.

For more information about Curiosity and its mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .

Image Credit:

Caltech

Image Addition Date:

2012-10-30