Mars Index - Top Ten MER Images - Top Raw Images

5

Here-a-Hematite, There-a-Hematite 03/11/2004 Opportunity

Red dots mark the spots where Opportunity found the water-indicating mineral hematite in greater abundance.

These maps, created with data from the miniature thermal emission spectrometer, an instrument located on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's panoramic camera mast assembly, show the hematite abundance as detected by the instrument from inside the crater at Opportunity's landing site. Hematite is a mineral that often forms in the presence of liquid water on Earth. Hematite data were taken at infrared wavelengths to create these maps, which have been superimposed on images from the rover's navigation camera to provide the visual context of how the hematite is distributed across the martian surface. The hematite abundance has been color-coded, with blue showing relatively no abundance to red showing about 20 percent abundance. Each roughly circular spot represents a single observation by the instrument.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/ASU