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PIA02689: 'Gibson' Panorama by Spirit at 'Home Plate' (False Color)
Target Name: Mars
Is a satellite of: Sol (our sun)
Mission: Mars Exploration Rover (MER)
Spacecraft: Spirit
Instrument: Panoramic Camera
Product Size: 10860 samples x 4315 lines
Produced By: U.S. Geological Survey
Full-Res TIFF: PIA02689.tif (140.6 MB)
Full-Res JPEG: PIA02689.jpg (5.054 MB)

Click on the image to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original).

Updated Caption: (View Original Caption)

Click here for poster version of PIA02689 Layers at Home Plate Click here for figure 2 of PIA02689 Evidence of Volcanic Explosion
Figure 1Figure 2

Layers at Home Plate
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit acquired this high-resolution view of intricately layered exposures of rock while parked on the northwest edge of the bright, semi-circular feature known as "Home Plate." The rover was perched at a 27-degree upward tilt while creating the panorama, resulting in the "U" shape of the mosaic. Figure 1: (a) the northern edge of Home Plate, (b) the coarse-grained lower unit, (c) the fine-grained upper unit.

Spirit acquired 246 separate images of this scene using 6 different filters on the panoramic camera (Pancam) during the rover's Martian days, or sols, 748 through 751 (Feb. 9 through Feb. 12, 2006). The field of view covers 160 degrees of terrain around the rover.

Evidence of Volcanic Explosion
The lower coarse-grained unit shows granular textures toward the bottom of the image and massive textures (figure 2). Also shown is a feature interpreted to be a "bomb sag," which is four centimeters across. This false color image was obtained using Spirit's panoramic camera.


Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS/Cornell


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