New images from NASA's Spirit rover show coarse-grained layers from around the edge of a low plateau called Home Plate inside Gusev Crater on Mars. One possible origin for the material it fell to the ground after being thrown aloft by an explosion such as a volcanic eruption or meteorite impact.
Spirit's panoramic camera actually acquired the exposures on Feb. 10, the 749th Martian day, or sol, of its planned 90 day mission. This view is an approximately true-color rendering mathematically generated from separate images taken through all of the left Pancam's 432-nanometer to 753-nanometer filters.
The image includes a feature that could be what geologists call a bomb sag, which suggests an explosive event, such as a volcanic eruption. When layered deposits are struck by a falling rock while the layers are still soft, this type of pattern can be created.
