Free Astronomy Magazine March-April 2019

T his view of a rock called Block Island, the largest meteorite yet found on Mars, comes from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on Opportunity. Analysis of its composition using the rover’s alpha particle X-ray spectrometer confirmed that it is rich in iron and nickel. The rock is about 2 feet (60 centimeters) across. This is a false-color, red-green-blue composite view generated from images taken through the Pan- cam’s filters. The exaggerated color is used for en- hancing the visibility of differences among the types of rock and soil materials. [NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell] S pirit took this microscopic imager picture of the drift dubbed “Serpent” on Spirit’s 73 rd Martian day on Mars after successfully digging into the side of the drift. The image is the first-ever microscopic look inside a drift. It captures only the scuffed interior of the Serpent drift and is dominated by larger, pea-shaped particles. These grains are not natural to the inside of the drift, but are crust particles that have tumbled into the scuffed area as a result of the digging. [NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/USGS]