Opportunity Mars Rover: Nereus Crater (2009 Oct 19)

[Delboy]

I'm quite intrigued by the apparent hole in the rock to the left and this side of the crater.

It's on the fourth section from the left about half way down.

It looks like something has burrowed into the rock/soil there and could reappear whenever.

It is also interesting to see that many of the white rocks are angular rather than rounded in shape.

I know there are no regular seas and 'tides' on mars but would have still expected to see rocks like pebbles rather than what we have.

[orin stepanek]

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091019.html
I think your hole is only a shadow. The white rocks intrigue me also. I was thinking maybe a calcite of some type?

Orin

[geckzilla]

I don't see any burrowing hole. I'm tried to find it but can't. There's nothing there to burrow, anyhow. The rocks look very well weathered to me. I don't see a whole lot of sharp angles. I see cracks, though, which create lines which then form angular shapes. Almost all of the rocks I see look pretty rounded off, though. What it looks like to me is a relatively thin layer of rock is under the sandy exterior and the meteor smashed it like an eggshell. Well, that is probably not correct, but that's what immediately came to my mind.

The text refers to an earlier meteorite that is apparently unrelated to this crater.

[grump]

What tricked me (into thinking the stones looked unweathered) is the scale of the scene. If you click on the APOD to get the original pic, it starts to make sense. The crater is 10m across, so the 'pebbles' are actually largish rocks - few seem smaller than a house brick.

I expected to see a bit of weathering from wind blown sand, and if I look at some of the 'sedimentary' rocks I can see that some layers are worn more than others.

[nfriberg]

It sure looks like there is frost on these rocks.

[Jyrki]

Can we count on it being reported here on APOD, if they manage to free Spirit? Or should I just keep on checking the mission www-pages periodically for details?

Best of luck to "free the Spirit" -efforts !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers,

Jyrki

[bystander]

Can we count on it being reported here on APOD, if they manage to free Spirit?
Or should I just keep on checking the mission www-pages periodically for details?

Probably the best place to get the latest news on the Spirit extraction effort is the Free Spirit page at JPL. However, if and when the extraction is successful, some enterprising soul will probably report it here on
The Asterisk*. The news will probably be old by the time you see it on APOD.