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PIA16809: Variation in Water Content in Martian Subsurface Along Curiosity's Traverse
This set of graphs shows variation in the amount and the depth of water detected beneath NASA's Mars rover Curiosity by use of the rover's Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instrument at different points the rover has driven.
 Target Name:  Mars
 Mission:  Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) 
 Spacecraft:  Curiosity
 Instrument:  Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons 
 Product Size:  1440 x 1080 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  JPL 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA16809.tif (4.668 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA16809.jpg (148 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 set of graphs shows variation in the amount and the depth of water detected beneath NASA's Mars rover Curiosity by use of the rover's Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instrument at different points along the distance the rover has driven, in meters.

DAN detects even very small amounts of water in the ground beneath the rover, primarily water bound into the crystal structure of hydrated minerals. The bottom graph indicates that the water content of the top 2 feet (60 centimeters) of the ground at points in the "Yellowknife Bay" area where DAN has taken measurements is estimated at about 3 percent.

JPL manages the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For more about NASA's Curiosity mission, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl, http://www.nasa.gov/mars, and http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Russian Space Research Institute

Image Addition Date:
2013-03-18