Mars Index - Top Ten MER Images - Top Raw Images

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Blueberries on Mars Opportunity

When some scientists first saw these strange beads of hematite, they seemed like "blueberries" embedded in a "muffin" of martian soil.

The first outcrop rock Opportunity examined up close was finely-layered, buff-colored and in the process of being eroded by windblown sand. Embedded in it and on top of it like blueberries in a muffin were little spherical grains. Black and white microscopic images like this one taken on Opportunity’s 14th sol on Mars show the gray spheres which have weathered out of the rock and are resting in the darker soil. On first discovery, scientists didn’t know if the spheres formed when molten rock was sprayed into the air by a volcano or a meteor impact, or if they were accumulated material, formed by minerals coming out of solution as water diffused through rock. Through intense investigations with the spectrometers, scientists were able to determine that the blueberries are rich in the mineral hematite, which on Earth most often forms in the presence of liquid water. These blueberries helped scientists determine that the rocks at Opportunity's landing site had been soaked in liquid water.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/USGS