Big Joe in the Chryse Planitia
Near the Viking 1 Lander on the Chryse Plains of Mars, "Big Joe"
stands a silent vigil. This large, often-photographed dark rock has a
topping of reddish fine-grained silt that spills down its sides. It is about
2 meters (6.6 feet) long and lies about 8 meters (26 feet) from the
spacecraft. The rough texture of the sides shows it to be coarse
grained. Big Joe appears to be part of a field of large blocks that has a
roughly circular alignment and which may be part of the rim of an
ancient degraded crater. Some of the other blocks of the field can be
seen to the left, extending out toward the horizon, perhaps 1.5
kilometers (1 mile) away. Drifts of fine-grained material cover the
surface to the right and left of Big Joe. The part of the Lander that is
visible in the lower left is the cover of the nuclear power supply.
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