‘Gibson’ Panorama by Spirit at ‘Home Plate’ (False Color)

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Caption:

Figure 1 Figure 2

Layers at Home Plate
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit acquired this high-resolution view of intricately layered exposures of rock while parked on the northwest edge of the bright, semi-circular feature known as "Home Plate." The rover was perched at a 27-degree upward tilt while creating the panorama, resulting in the "U" shape of the mosaic. Figure 1: (a) the northern edge of Home Plate, (b) the coarse-grained lower unit, (c) the fine-grained upper unit.

Spirit acquired 246 separate images of this scene using 6 different filters on the panoramic camera (Pancam) during the rover's Martian days, or sols, 748 through 751 (Feb. 9 through Feb. 12, 2006). The field of view covers 160 degrees of terrain around the rover.

Evidence of Volcanic Explosion
The lower coarse-grained unit shows granular textures toward the bottom of the image and massive textures (figure 2). Also shown is a feature interpreted to be a "bomb sag," which is four centimeters across. This false color image was obtained using Spirit's panoramic camera.

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