PIA05587: A Bowl of Hematite-Rich 'Berries'


A Bowl of Hematite-Rich ‘Berries’

Caption:

This graph shows two spectra of outcrop regions near the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's landing site. The blue line shows data for a region dubbed "Berry Bowl," which contains a handful of the sphere-like grains dubbed "blueberries." The yellow line represents an area called "Empty" next to Berry Bowl that is devoid of berries. Berry Bowl's spectrum still shows typical outcrop characteristics, but also exhibits an intense hematite signature, seen as a "magnetic sextet." Hematite is an iron-bearing mineral often formed in water. These spectra were taken by the rover's Moessbauer spectrometer on the 46th (Empty) and 48th (Berry Bowl) martian days, or sols, of its mission.

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 Moessbauer Spectrometer (MB)
Detector
Extra Keywords Color, Magnetosphere, Water
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2004-03-18
Date in Caption
Image Credit NASA/JPL/Cornell/University of Mainz
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA05587
Identifier PIA05587