[新闻] 机遇号传回火星土壤显微照片 验证是否有水

美国“机遇”号火星车3日利用其机械臂上的显微成像仪首次拍摄到火星土壤的显微照片，并将其传回了地面。科学家说，很有可能在拍摄到的土壤内找到曾经有水存在的痕迹。

　　宇航局官员说，在“机遇”号落脚的一个20米见方的坑内，当火星车的机械臂伸向地面后，机械臂顶端的显微成像仪以非常近的距离拍摄到一块面积如硬币大小的土壤，土壤表面分布着一些微小的碎石。地面科学家正在对这些显微照片进行分析，探究土壤中的矿物成分。科学家说，原先的研究显示，虽然今天的火星表面异常干燥，但它从前很可能更湿润一些，更适合生命生存。下一步，“机遇”号的机械臂将把一种德国制造的分光计伸向地面，帮助测定土壤成分，特别是可能存在的赤铁矿的含量。

　　此前的火星探测表明，“机遇”号的着陆区域——“梅里迪亚尼平面”可能有多达20%的面积蕴藏着赤铁矿，该矿物通常在有液态水的环境下生成。科学家利用“机遇”号发回的数据，已发现在这一区域可能有赤铁矿的线索。而科学家现在要做的是证实自己的判断。(记者 颜亮)


来源： 新华网  2004-02-04 11:24

“机遇”号3日利用其机械臂上的显微成像仪首次拍摄到火星土壤的显微照片

PIA05273: "Berries" on the Ground

This mosaic image shows an extreme close-up of round, blueberry-shaped formations in the martian soil near a part of the rock outcrop at Meridiani Planum called Stone Mountain. Scientists are studying these curious formations for clues about the area's past environmental conditions. The image, one of the highest resolution images ever taken by the microscopic imager, an instrument located on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's instrument deployment device or "arm".

咿呀、元宵撒了一地

2月12日，“机遇”号火星车从火星发回了这张特写照片，图中可以看到一颗颗像“蛋糕上的蓝莓果”似的小石球。科学家正在研究这些小石球的形成过程，以寻找火星上曾经有水存在的证据。新华社/路透

PIA05288: Ground Inspection

Target Name: Mars
Is a satellite of: Sol (our sun)
Mission: Mars Exploration Rover (MER)

Spacecraft: Opportunity

Instrument: Microscopic Imager

Product Size: 512 samples x 512 lines
Produced By: JPL

Full-Res TIFF: &nbspIA05288.tif (262.6 kB)  
Full-Res JPEG: &nbspIA05288.jpg (57.54 kB)

PIA05324: Tiny Pebbles

This image taken by the microscopic imager instrument located on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's instrument deployment device, or "arm," shows the crater floor at Meridiani Planum, Mars, before the rover dug a trench on sol 23 (February 16, 2004). Grains of soil on the floor appear sand-sized with millimeter-sized pebbles on top. The area in this image measures approximately 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) across.

是冰块 是矿石 还是盐的结晶    还是。。。。。。。

应该是某种结晶。。
3月13日拍摄。

PIA05564: Finding the 'Blueberry' Muffin Recipe

Scientists are hunting down the recipe for the "blueberries" they've discovered on Mars with the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. For location of the area dubbed "Berry Bowl" see PIA05563.
To figure out the chemical composition of the blueberries, scientists are currently analyzing the area shown in the microscopic image with the rover's alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and Moessbauer spectrometer. The field of view for the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer is about equal to the field of view of the microscopic image and the field of view for the Moessbauer spectrometer is about half the size of the microscopic image, so the spectrometers will observe a mix of sand, rock, and blueberries. The blueberries are too small to analyze alone. Scientists will discern the blueberry spectra, or light signatures, from the observed blend of spectra by subtracting out the known sand and rock spectra. Basically, finding the blueberry recipe is like making a recipe in reverse. Chemical measurements of the sand were taken earlier, and a measurement of the same rock in an area clear of the blueberries will be taken with the spectrometers on sol 48.

The "triple berry" seen in the center of the microscopic image is intriguing to scientists because it reveals a clue about how the blueberries formed. Spheres formed from impacts or volcanoes do not tend to mold together like the spheres seen in the microscopic image. Spheres from impacts or craters are usually round or teardrop-shaped from flying in the air and freezing before hitting the ground. Any droplets of magma that combine with other droplets usually grow into a single mass in a spherical, dumbbell, or teardrop shape. In contrast, concretions could form this triple berry shape. Concretions are spherical mineral structures formed by groundwater percolating through porous rocks. On Earth, as concretions grow in close proximity to each other, their outer edges often intersect each other, giving an appearance like a triple soap bubble.