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Press Release Images: Opportunity
23-Nov-2005
 
 
In this set of three images, a large ripple dubbed 'Scylla' is featured.  The top two color images are from Opportunity's panoramic camera.  The left color image is a false-color image, which means it looks exaggerated to the human eye.  The filters that are used to make the image highlight, in blue, areas of what scientists believe are high basaltic sand mixed with grayish-blue hematite.  The color image on the right is an approximate true-color image, so it looks like the typical reddish orange martian terrain.  Scylla is a fairly large ripple - part of a series of large ripples that form what looks like a small hill.  At the foot of the ripples is an area of bright outcrop rocks.  

The lower image is a black and white navigation camera image of a wider view with the Scylla ripple highlighted by a white box.  The 'hill' of ripples sits in the background and a large field of bright outcrop rocks make up the entire foreground of the image.
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Windblown Ripple 'Scylla'

These images were acquired by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity using its panoramic camera on sol 644 (Nov. 15, 2005; upper two images) and its navigation camera on sol 645 (Nov. 16, 2005; lower image). The view looks towards the east, covering a large wind-blown ripple called "Scylla" other nearby ripples and patches of brighter rock strewn with dark cobbles. Panoramic camera bands L4 (601-nanometer wavelength), L5 (535 nanometers), and L6 (482 nanometers) correspond to red, green, and blue bands in the false-color image shown in the upper left. The blue-tinted colors associated with the scours and ripple crests are probably due to the presence of basaltic sands mixed with hematite-rich spherules. Color patterns on the larger ripple flanks are caused by different amounts of reddish dust. The larger ripple flanks have an intricate mixture of erosional scours and secondary ripples extending downward from the main ripple crests, suggesting that these ripples have most recently encountered a period of wind erosion and transport of their outer layers. For comparison, the same panoramic camera image is shown in the upper right, but in this case rendered as an approximately true-color composite.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell

This false-color image from Opportunity's panoramic camera features large ripple dubbed 'Scylla'.  The filters that are used to make the image highlight, in blue, areas of what scientists believe are high basaltic sand mixed with grayish-blue hematite.
Browse Image
Medium Image (327 kB)
Large (2.0 MB)
This approximate true-color image from Opportunity's panoramic camera features large ripple dubbed 'Scylla'. It looks like the typical reddish orange martian terrain.
Browse Image
Medium Image (167 kB)
Large (1.3 MB)

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