APOD: Rover Arrives at Endeavor Crater on Mars (2011 Aug 15)

[Chris Peterson]

Sorry, but why does the rock to the left of center appear to have a series of holes of the same diameter in what looks like almost a straight horizontal line?

I think you're a victim of your own pareidolia.

[Minyatur]

The regular grooves in the rocks look like they were caused by something (a glacier perhaps...), then dumped there

[batjac2]

I am sure you are right, it just looks odd.

[BMAONE23]

This view of the same rock from day 2678 doesn't indicate the same holes but the B/W image doesn't indicate much detail of the shaded side

Click to view full size image

It might be an artifact from image processing

[NoelC]

Here's a forensically enhanced view of that rock...

RoverImage.jpg

And here's another, done a different way:

RoverImage2.jpg

Seems to me they need to send the rover over there to get a closer look.

-Noel

[rstevenson]

I've seen similar rocks here on Earth, a planet I'm somewhat more familiar with. All it indicates is that some layers in the rock erode more in some spots than in others. Well, that much is obvious. So how would the sedimentary process put material in there so that it eroded like this? Imagine ripples running at about 90° into the face of the rock in that layer with the holes in it. Imagine that the low spot of each ripple is softer than the high spot of each ripple. Now add more layers with ripples in other directions (or no ripples), compress for a billion years or so, then expose on the surface and erode away. Et voila! Holes.

As usual, I hereby volunteer to go there to examine the rock further -- in a pristine, bug-free suit, of course.

Rob

[Guest]

Thanks for the enhancements and possible explanations.

[NoelC]

As usual, I hereby volunteer to go there to examine the rock further -- in a pristine, bug-free suit, of course.

In all seriousness, why didn't they ask the rover to go over there? That's certainly a rock that seems interesting.

-Noel

[neufer]

[size=150][color=#0000FF]Opportunity about to start an IDD campaign[/color][/size]

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[size=150][color=#0000FF]A flat topped rock nicknamed Drysdale 2[/color][/size]

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[size=150][color=#0000FF]A flat topped rock nicknamed Tisdale 2[/color][/size]

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Opportunity Arrives at Huge Martian Crater with Superb Science and Scenic Outlook
by Ken Kremer on August 24, 2011

<<[Opportunity has] started driving northwards up the gnetle slopes of Cape York and has reached a small crater named “Odyssey” – the first science target, Dr. Matt Golembek told Universe Today. Golembek is a Senior Research Scientist with the Mars Exploration Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.

“Large ejecta blocks are clearly visible on the rim of Odyssey crater,” said Golembek. The crater is about 20 m in diameter.

Odyssey is a small impact crater of interest to the team because it features exposed material from Mars ancient Noachian era that was ejected when the crater was excavated long ago. Opportunity carefully drove over several days to one of those ejecta blocks – a flat topped rock nicknamed Tisdale 2.

“Opportunity is at a block of Odyssey crater ejecta called Tisdale 2 and the rock appears different from anything else we have seen,” Golembek explained.

Starting on Sol 2688 (Aug. 16) the rover began a science campaign time to investigate the rock with the instruments at the terminus of its robotic arm or IDD (Instrument Deployment Device) that will continue for some period of time.

“We are about to start an IDD campaign,” Golembek stated.

The team reports that the soil at Cape York is also of a different texture than any that Opportunity has seen so far on her incredible 33 km trek across the Meridiani Planum region of Mars. So far they haven’t seen of the iron-rich concretions, nicknamed “blueberries,” which have been plentiful on the surface along the way at numerous locations Opportunity has stopped at and investigated over the past 90 months. (Initially the prime mission was projected to last 3 months.)

The science team is directing Opportunity to hunt for clay minerals, also known as phyllosilicates, that could unlock the secrets of an ancient Epoch on Mars stretching back billions and billions of years ago that was far wetter and very likely more habitable and welcoming to life’s genesis.

Phyllosilicate minerals form in neutral water that would be vastly more friendly to any potential Martian life forms – if they ever existed in the past or present. Signatures for phyllosilicates were detected by the CRISM instrument aboard NASA’s powerful Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft circling Mars>>