MER: Opportunity Keeps Finding Surprises
Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2018 3:25 pm
Long-Lived Mars Rover Opportunity Keeps Finding Surprises
NASA | JPL-Caltech | MER Opportunity | 2018 Feb 16
NASA | JPL-Caltech | MER Opportunity | 2018 Feb 16
NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity keeps providing surprises about the Red Planet, most recently with observations of possible “rock stripes.”
- Textured rows on the ground in this portion of 'Perseverance Valley' are under investigation by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, which used its Navigation Camera to take the component images of this downhill-looking scene. The rover reaches its 5,000th Martian day, or sol, on Feb. 16, 2018. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The ground texture seen in recent images from the rover resembles a smudged version of very distinctive stone stripes on some mountain slopes on Earth that result from repeated cycles of freezing and thawing of wet soil. But it might also be due to wind, downhill transport, other processes or a combination.
Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004. As it reaches the 5,000th Martian day, or sol, of what was planned as a 90-sol mission, it is investigating a channel called “Perseverance Valley,” which descends the inboard slope of the western rim of Endeavour Crater. ...
On some slopes within the valley, the soil and gravel particles appear to have become organized into narrow rows or corrugations, parallel to the slope, alternating between rows with more gravel and rows with less. ...