[X] My Assistant

[jvandriel]

The Pancam L2 view on Sol 1081.

jvandriel

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[atomoid]

aside from the spaghetti on SOL 1080, which i nterpret as dust clumping like rime ice, im intrigued by the bright speck at lower right, some sort of crystal facet reflecting the sunshine? the views without the sunlight only show a somewhat uninspiring out of focus speck in the same place.

How come we havent seen any crystals in the sediments so far (or have we?), seems the conditions should have allowed some crystal growth, but maybe they are just salt crystals and dont weather very well..

[CosmicRocker]

I have seen quite a few bright specs in images from both rovers, and have also wondered if at least some of them were flashes from crystal faces. Most of them are too small to determine what they are, but occasionally there have been larger areas that resembled specular reflections to me. The one that comes to mind at the moment is Bounce Rock. Some images of it seemed to display a lot of specular reflections, but I can imagine it may be simply a saturated exposure.


As for seeing crystals of any kind, I think we've seen several examples, though not as commonly as I would have expected. I think I have seen crystal shapes or cross sections in quite a few of the rocks Spirit has looked at with the MI. Opportunity did catch at least a few images of crystals surrounding some concretions (upper right in this: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/pre...-B038R1_br.jpg), and there were the hopper crystal outlines seen at Lemon Rind.

[Stu]

First time I've tried this...



("Fast Show" voice: "Isn't Ultreya BRILLIANT???!"

Some lovely layered rocks here too...

[atomoid]

...crystal shapes or cross sections in quite a few of the rocks Spirit has looked at with the MI. Opportunity did catch at least a few images of crystals surrounding some concretions (upper right in this: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/pre...-B038R1_br.jpg), and there were the hopper crystal outlines seen at Lemon Rind.

The vugs are found aplenty in the weatherd rocks, but i was hoping to see some remaining crystals, although i guess they'd likely all be salt crystals of some sort and would be long gone, unless we could do some ground breaking to find unweatherd ones. as for other crystal types that might last longer, i guess we have to look somewhere else...

Nice picture of bounce, i didnt remember noting what looks like a some soil and blueberries in a depression on top of it, so now how did the bloobs get up there??

[fredk]

More exciting astro-astronomy plans from the latest update:

Science team members plan to have Spirit observe a transit of the Martian moon Phobos as it passes between the rover and the sun on sol 1083 (Jan. 19, 2007) and attempt to acquire panoramic camera images of comet McNaught at sunrise. It is possible that predawn sunlight will make the comet hard to see.

Does anyone have access to software that can show us the sky from Mars? What will the elongation of McNaught be that morning?

[slinted]

Does anyone have access to software that can show us the sky from Mars? What will the elongation of McNaught be that morning?

JPL's Horizons puts the Sun-Observer-Target angle at slightly below 10 degrees for sunrise on sol 1083. Thankfully, the lower dust levels will give a clearer view at sunrise than we would have seen last week. This should be very cool!

[mhoward]

More exciting astro-astronomy plans from the latest update:

Some Pancam images came down, taken about 5 am local Mars time on Sol 1083, facing east. I don't see the comet, though.

Maybe Oppy will have better luck?

[fredk]

Thanks for pointing them out - I saw that they were L7's and ignored them, thinking for sure they'd use L1, the wide open setting. But then considering how close to the sun McNaught is, the sky may be so bright by the time the comet rises that L7 will work. And perhaps L7 will cut through the dust better than L1?

[CosmicRocker]

Sweet. An image of McNaught would be a nice feather in the cap for one of these Renaissance Rovers. Apparently Opportunity will also make an attempt. I'd guess they'll have more opportunities to try to catch it in coming sols.

The vugs are found aplenty in the weatherd rocks, but i was hoping to see some remaining crystals, although i guess they'd likely all be salt crystals of some sort and would be long gone, unless we could do some ground breaking to find unweatherd ones. as for other crystal types that might last longer, i guess we have to look somewhere else...

Nice picture of bounce, i didnt remember noting what looks like a some soil and blueberries in a depression on top of it, so now how did the bloobs get up there??

I'm sorry. I might not have been clear about that, as there are also vugs in that image. I was referring to the sharply angular grains hugging the blueberry in the upper left corner. This section of rock seems to have undergone some recrystallization that caused it to change rather dramatically in appearance as compared to other parts of the section in Eagle Crater. They too might be merely the preserved shapes of previous crystals that were later replaced by another mineral, but I can't speak to that. It appears likely that this was the Whatanga contact we saw in Endurance. Does anyone know where that name comes from?
Ok, I'll stop talking about Opportunity in a Spirit topic.

[jvandriel]

Added a few images.

The Pancam L2 panoramic view taken on Sol 1081.

jvandriel

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[tedstryk]

First time I've tried this...

Good work...I also played around a bit with Sol 1081.

[Tesheiner]

Spirit may have finished work at this outcrop because the plan for tosol (1087) is .

[general]

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/pa...CGP2749R7M1.JPG

comet????

[fredk]

Unfortunately all there seems to be is cosmic ray hits. Notice how they're both above and below the horizon.