Exterior of Opportunity Heat Shield, Sol 344

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Caption:

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity took a detailed look at what was once the exterior of its heat shield. Hitting the martian surface inverted the heat shield, making it difficult to photograph the outside where evidence of any atmospheric effects may be found.

Engineers sought this image to help determine how the heat shield weathered the intense frictional heat created as it passed through the martian atmosphere.

This is an approximately true-color rendering of the scene acquired around 12:47 p.m. local solar time on Opportunity's sol 344 (Jan. 11, 2005) using panoramic camera filters at wavelengths of 750, 530, and 430 nanometers.

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