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Scenes from the Mars, Red Planet
Mars Rover  At left is a Lander petal and a metallic mast which is a portion of the low-gain antenna. On the horizon the double "Twin Peaks" are visible, about 1-2 kilometers away. The rock "Couch" is the dark, curved rock at right of Twin Peaks. Another Lander petal is at left-center, showing the fully deployed forward ramp at far left, and rear ramp at right, which rover Sojourner used to descend to the surface of Mars on July 5. Immediately to the left of the rear ramp is the rock "Barnacle Bill", which scientists found be andesitic, possibly indicating that it is a volcanic rock (a true andesite) or a physical mixture of particles. Just beyond Barnacle Bill, rover tracks lead to Sojourner, shown using its Alpha Proton X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument to study the large rock "Yogi". Yogi, low in quartz content, appears to be more primitive than Barnacle Bill, and appears more like the common basalts found on Earth.<BR><BR>The tracks and circular pattern in the soil leading up to Yogi were part of Sojourner's soil mechanics experiments, in which varying amounts of pressure were applied to the wheels in order to determine physical properties of the soil. During its traverse to Yogi the rover stirred the soil and exposed material from several centimeters in depth. During one of the turns to deploy Sojourner's Alpha Proton X-Ray Spectrometer, the wheels dug particularly deeply and exposed white material. Spectra of this white material show it is virtually identical to the rock "Scooby Doo", and such white material may underlie much of the site. Deflated airbags are visible at the perimeter of all three Lander petals.<BR><BR>Mars Pathfinder is the second in NASA's Discovery program of low-cost spacecraft with highly focused science goals. Mars in Full View  The martian surface, taken on Mars by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's panoramic camera. 'Wopmay' Rock  This approximate true-color image taken by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows an unusual, lumpy rock informally named "Wopmay" on the lower slopes of "Endurance Crater." The rock was named after the Canadian bush pilot Wilfrid Reid "Wop" May. Like "Escher" and other rocks dotting the bottom of Endurance, scientists believe the lumps in Wopmay may be related to cracking and alteration processes, possibly caused by exposure to water. The area between intersecting sets of cracks eroded in a way that created the lumpy appearance. Rover team members plan to drive Opportunity over to Wopmay for a closer look in coming sols. This image was taken by the rover's panoramic camera on sol 248 (Oct. 4, 2004), using its 750-, 530- and 480-nanometer filters.
Over Here, Over There  This partial panoramic image from the navigation camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the lander in the center of the crater at Meridiani Planum, Mars. The image, taken on sol 34 of Opportunity's journey, was not completely downlinked as of sol 35 of the rover's mission. Note the view of the plains outside the crater, the rover tracks in the center and right of the image, and the airbag bounce marks behind the lander. Over the Rover  This image from the navigation camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been projected to show an overhead perspective of the rover. This image was taken shortly after the rover touched down at Meridiani Planum, Mars, at approximately 9:05 p.m. PST on Saturday, Jan. 24. Perched Above Gusev Crater  This approximate true-color image taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows a rock outcrop dubbed "Longhorn," and behind it, the sweeping plains of Gusev Crater. On the horizon, the rim of Gusev Crater is clearly visible. The view is to the south of the rover's current position.
Blueberries' and 'Popcorn'  This view from the microscopic imager on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows a type of light-colored, rough-textured spherules scientists are calling "popcorn" in contrast to the darker, smoother spherules called "blueberries." The spherules seen here are on the part of a rock named "Bylot" indicated in a panoramic camera image. This magnified view confirmed the existence of blueberries partially coated in the popcorn material. This mosaic was assembled from four microscopic imager frames taken on sol 199 (Aug. 15, 2004) A Global Mars Map  Four hemispheric views have been combined into a full-color global map (called a Mollweide projection), showing the regions of Mars imaged by the Hubble telescope during the planet's closest approach to Earth. Latitudes below about 60 degrees south were not viewed by the telescope because the planet's north pole was tilted towards Earth during this time. Mars at Opposition (the Acidalia Region)  This image is centered near the location of the Pathfinder landing site. Dark sand dunes that surround the polar cap merge into a large, dark region called Acidalia. This area, as shown by images from the Hubble telescope and other spacecraft, is composed of dark, sand-sized grains of pulverized volcanic rock. Below and to the left of Acidalia are the massive Martian canyon systems of Valles Marineris, some of which form long linear markings that were once thought by some to be canals. Early morning clouds can be seen along the left limb of the planet, and a large cyclonic storm composed of water ice is churning near the polar cap.
Spirit Reaches for Closer Look  This image taken by the front hazard-identification camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, shows the rover's robotic arm, or instrument deployment device. The arm was deployed from its stowed position beneath the "front porch" of the rover body early Friday morning. This is the first use of the arm to deploy the microscopic imager, one of four geological instruments located on the arm. The instrument will help scientists analyze and understand martian rocks and soils by taking very high resolution, close-up images. Evidence for Recent Liquid Water on Mars: Channeled Aprons in a Small Crater within Newton Crater  Newton Crater is a large basin formed by an asteroid impact that probably occurred more than 3 billion years ago. It is approximately 287 kilometers (178 miles) across. The picture shown here (top) highlights the north wall of a specific, smaller crater located in the southwestern quarter of Newton Crater (above). The crater of interest was also formed by an impact; it is about 7 km (4.4 mi) across, which is about 7 times bigger than the famous Meteor Crater in northern Arizona in North America. The north wall of the small crater has many narrow gullies eroded into it. These are hypothesized to have been formed by flowing water and debris flows. Debris transported with the water created lobed and finger-like deposits at the base of the crater wall where it intersects the floor(bottom center top image). Many of the finger-like deposits have small channels indicating that a liquid--most likely water--flowed in these areas. Hundreds of individual water and debris flow events might have occurred to create the scene shown here. Each outburst of water from higher upon the crater slopes would have constituted a competition between evaporation, freezing, and gravity. The individual deposits at the ends of channels in this MOC image mosaic were used to get a rough estimate of the minimum amount of water that might be involved in each flow event. This is done first by assuming that the deposits are like debris flows on Earth. In a debris flow, no less than about 10% (and no more than 30%) of their volume is water. Second, the volume of an apron deposit is estimated by measuring the area covered in the MOC image and multiplying it by a conservative estimate of thickness, 2 meters (6.5 feet). For a flow containing only 10% water, these estimates conservatively suggest that about 2.5 million liters (660,000 gallons) of water are involved in each event; this is enough to fill about 7 community-sized swimming pools or enough to supply 20 people with their water needs for a year. Hint of planet-sized drifters bewilders Hubble scientists  This image shows the globular cluster M22 as seen with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's workhorse instrument, the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). A team of American and European astronomers has studied the cluster in search for traces of short-lived brightening, due to an effect called microlensing, of faint stars in the background (too faint to be seen in this representation). Seven microlensing events were seen - one 'normal' event where a dwarf star in M22 passed in front of a background star, and six short events strongly suggesting the existence of 'free-floating' planet-sized objects in M22. If confirmed these planets would be the smallest detected which are not orbiting any star. In the upper left corner is a ground-based view of M22 showing the position of the WFPC2 image. M22, also known as NGC 6656, is the brightest globular cluster visible from the Northern hemisphere and it is an easy naked-eye object. The 12 to 14 billion year old cluster is about 8500 light years distant and about 65 light years across. Its angular diameter is 24 arcminutes or almost the size of the full Moon. This Hubble view measures about 3 light years across.
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