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 Spirit's landing site at Gusev crater (ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/G.Neukum) |
February 1st: [Updated] According to the European Space Agency's Mars Express probe, the place where Spirit touched down several weeks ago is awash in a shade of green. In a photo release on their mission website, the exact position of the first Mars Exploration Rover (calculated & previously imaged by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor) is indicated by the white crosshairs. The image caption notes that "Scientists believe that the crater was covered by standing water, maybe in the form of a lake, early in the history of Mars."
NASA Spirit Rover Landing Site (Mars Express Image Release)
Feb 3rd Update: A few readers to MarsNews.com say this may indicate the presence of olivine, a green-hued volcanic mineral that decomposes rapidly when reacted to water. Others point out this correctly color-processed image of the same region from NASA's Mars Odyssey are of strikingly different colors. Developing...
(Color-balanced THEMIS image courtesy of Donald Davis, who has processed images appearing on the official THEMIS website for NASA's Mars Odyssey mission)
Feb 23rd Update: The ESA image has now been quietly changed to offer more of a brownish hue. In an email sent to a reader of WhatOnMars.com, a Mars Express project scientist explained that the initial greenish hue was due to the image's color calibration being incorrect. This seems to have diffused the controversy.
Posted by jburk at February 1, 2004 02:06 PM
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