PIA05456: Charlie Flats


Charlie Flats

Caption:

This image from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's panoramic camera shows a region of the rock outcrop at Meridiani Planum, Mars, dubbed "Charlie Flats." This region is a rich science target for Opportunity because it contains a diverse assortment of small grains, pebbles and spherules, as well as both dark and light soil deposits. The area seen here measures approximately 0.6 meters (2 feet) across. The smallest grains visible in this image are only a few millimeters in size. The approximate true color image was acquired on Sol 20 of Opportunity's mission with panoramic camera filters red, green and blue.

figure 1 for PIA05456
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Charlie Flats Spectra

The chart above shows examples of spectra, or light wave patterns, extracted from the region of the Meridiani Planum rock outcrop dubbed "Charlie Flats," a rich science target for the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The spectra were extracted from the similarly colored regions in the image on the left, taken by the rover's panoramic camera. The green circle identifies a bright, dust-like soil deposit. The red circle identifies a dark soil region. The yellow identifies a small, angular rock chip with a strong near-infrared band. The pink identifies a sphere-shaped pebble with a different strong near-infrared band. The cyan circle shows a dark, grayish pebble.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Mars
System
Target Type Planet
Mission Mars Exploration Rover (MER)
Instrument Host Opportunity (MER-B)
Host Type Rover
Instrument Panoramic Camera (Pancam)
Detector
Extra Keywords Color, Dust, Infrared
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2004-02-26
Date in Caption
Image Credit NASA/JPL/Cornell
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA05456
Identifier PIA05456