Do you mean that fine-grained material around part of the perimeter of the block? I think that is something we've seen before. I'd be surprised if they finally stopped to study it. It looks like a lower, fine-grained substrate of soil overlaying the edge of the block.

The fhaz images should be telling us where the work volume is, unless they still need to adjust the rover's position to properly deploy the IDD. Usually the arm is extended beyond the front wheels when the instruments are used. The pancam target called Puntarenas lies beyond the front wheels. I can't help but wonder if that will be the focus of the investigation.

The L7s of Puntarenas are not down yet. I think they'll give us the clearest view of the rocks. Until we get those images, here is a mosaic of Puntarenas made with the L2s and R2s.

I saw a bunch of MIs on the next sol's plan i.e. no additional position adjustment.

Instead of a mosaic of the L7 images of Puntarenas, let's take a look at an animation comparing individual Puntarenas pancam images through the L2 and L7 filters.

Here is an animation comparing the top half of Puntarenas through the L2 and L7 filters...

There is nothing unusual about the rind at this spot. My guess is that they have noticed the distinctive bedding on some of the eroded pieces and have stopped to get geochemistry. This, along with the physical appearances, can be compared with earlier stop(s) and may well give us the long-awaited marker bed of the sequence.

What was remarkable was the nice finely-bedded 5YR 4/3 outcrop that we toddled past on Sol 2392. Were I walking this traverse, I would have thought "yummy-- argillaceous" and stopped for a quick look.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r91/wil...45L2M1-crop.jpg

--Bill

Colour view of part of Punta Arenas...



More images 'n stuff here: http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/...at-punta-arenas

Yeah, if this is the area to be 'spectrometered', it looks like it's just a routine check of the pavement composition along the route and not some unusual feature to be examined.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/hortonheardawho/5110151352/#/

Pancam site seems to have gone down.

The PCDB is still down.

Yeah, this really does look like a routine stop for images of berries and perhaps some surface chemistry. If I was driving this robot I think I would target more images and measurements at cross sections of the bedrock instead of the the surface of the bedding planes.

So, what's with the earlier announcement that the "scientists spotted something shiny?" I don't see anything "cool and interesting" here. Surely they wouldn't have gotten us all fired up about something interesting that had been noticed unless there actually was something worth noticing.

It wasn't an "announcement", and certainly no-one's been "fired up" by anyone; it was just something Scott mentioned on Twitter. As I explained in a previous post, he used the term "shiny" to just describe something interesting to a scientist, which could well be something very subtle and not at all impressive to the eyes of back seat drivers like ourselves.

Maybe what makes this spot interesting is being representative of the area's pavement, but smooth and flat, good for spectrometry, considering grinding is not an option.

Come on, Stu. It wasn't "mentioned" on Twitter, it was announced.

...and, several of us were seriously fired up by his comment. We were actively searching for the next new and interesting feature to be discovered on Mars by this amazing rover.

Ok - seriously, it's called 'twitter'.

It's not the AP.

Moreover - you will only see an 'announcement' from Media Relations, not from a JPLer directly.

Sorry, CR, I don't think anyone was "seriously fired up", re-reading the posts..?

But that doesn't matter. Always best to remember that, as Doug said, announcements of anything news-worthy will be made officially, via the proper channels, not in a tweet with a smiley in it.

( And best not to complain about the contents of Twitter messages; yes, they're a useful source of information but unless they're an "Official account" they should be treated as informal and unofficial. Start taking them too seriously, start attaching too much importance to them, start kicking the Twitter gift horse in the teeth, and the people who write them might think twice about saying anything in case it got misinterpreted and landed them in trouble. )

Right. Keep treating Twitter posts like press releases and NASA officials will clamp down on any unofficial uttering by its employees regarding missions.