C'mon guys, show us what's on the other side... and the underside...!

In case anyone missed it, from Maxwell's blog they may be considering just that:

What's to discuss? Oppy's sat at the corner of "No" and "Where", next to the biggest, most gorgeous frakking meteorite seen during the whole mission, surrounded by mile after mile of (bleep) all... what else are they gonna do?

Seriously, I know it's not a priority, and they have a lot of things to consider. The meteorite collector, rock hound and martian tourists in me are all just desperate to see the whole thing.

Been a while since we saw an outcrop this pretty...

Clearly should be called South America!

"Drive, Drive, Drive" Squyres said.

"Opportunity is going for the home run of Endeavour Crater."
http://www.planetary.org/news/2009/0131_Mars_Exploration_Update_Spirit_and.html ://http://www.planetary.org/news/2009/...pirit_and.html

Our final destination is still 15 kilometers away ... and many more un-seen wonders are waiting to be studied there

SCNR
Nirgal

There's a lot of interesting info about BI in the latest press release. For example, in relation to Rocker's comment above,

Also,

Yes, unlike many a press release, the JPL press release cited by Fredk is WELL worth while. And Alan, you have bragging rights for some time on UMSF -- that dark rock off to the South of Oppy's path has turned out to be quite a find!

Considering that the meteorite is sitting on a sandy, wind-swept plain, it's logical to assume the patterns were etched by blown sand. I had never seen an example of an Fe-Ni meteorite displaying Widmanstatten structure on a naturally weathered surface, but the full images and captions page from that press release contains a nice example found on Earth, on which they say the pattern was enhanced by sand-blasting.

I was hoping that the two hypotheses, abrasive wind blasting and acid etching, might be distinguished with the tools available to the rover. After doing a little digging around, it appears that is going to be difficult. The pattern essentially exists because of alternating crystalline layers of two minerals, taenite and kamacite. The pattern can become visible due to differences in their acid solubilities or their resistances to aolian erosion. It appears that kamacite's hardness is 4, while that of taenite is 5 to 5.5. Kamacite is also more soluble in acid solutions than taenite. The bottom line is, kamacite layers should be eroded or corroded more deeply, regardless of whether acid solutions or blowing grains were the cause.

There's an interesting discussion of BI on the meteorite mailing list. Look for the thread that starts out titled 'Must-see Martian in 3-D'.

I've finally bitten the bullet and done a colour image - I worked on SAmerica but I reckon it's just about worth having another version of, even if it's my first try. Colour looks quite good on my screen!! There's certainly a lot to learn - but it's heaps of fun....and to have fresh Mars pics to do it with!! With the likes of James, Ant, Stu, Astro0 (to mention a few!) there's high standards to aim for..... thanks for inspiring me you guys.

Will try to post now and again when I get time.

Awesome job Hugh! crisp, colorful, and relevant!

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks PDP8E! I'll definitely try and do a post or two when I can. Midnight Mars Browser makes it so easy to grab and review MER pics.

Just got back from work and saw your pic Hugh. Good job! :-)

This always amuses me. People generally see what they want to see.

That image that supposedly looks like South America was cropped. The actual outcrop extends further up and down, if you zoomed out. Because of the cropping of the image, the illusion is that the outline appears to be South America shaped. In reality, it is far different.

Regardless, it is a great image!! I like it too.