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Press Release Images: Spirit
21-Sep-2005
 
 
This wide-angle, rectangular image shows a bumpy, horizontal ridge about two-thirds of the way up from the bottom edge of the frame capped by light-colored rock outcrops that poke upward from sandy, boulder-strewn flanks. In the foreground, extending from the bottom of the image to about halfway up in the field of view, is a mildly undulating, sandy surface punctuated with light-colored swirls of sand, hummocks, and scattered pebbles, cobbles, and boulders. Between the foreground and the ridge is a row of small dunes or sand drifts that slope off to the left. In the distance, beyond the ridge, is a mostly flat horizon.
Sand-Strewn Summit of "Husband Hill" on Mars

Undulating bands of dark and light sand, sloping dunes, and scattered cobbles form an apron around a ridge of light-colored rock that stands in bold relief against distant plains, as viewed by NASA's "Spirit" rover from the top of "Husband Hill" on Mars. "The view of the summit is spectacular where we are right now," said geologist Larry Crumpler, with the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque.

From here, Spirit is looking north-northeast en route to examining more of the local geology of the "Columbia Hills" in Gusev Crater. A few days after taking this picture, Spirit investigated the small, sinuous drifts on the left, located north-northeast of the rover's position in this image. The last previous time Spirit examined a drift was on the rim of "Bonneville Crater" almost 500 martian days, or sols, ago, in March 2004.

The largest light-colored rock in the foreground is nicknamed "Whittaker." The cliff beyond it and slightly to the left is nicknamed "Tenzing." The highest rock on the ridge ahead has been dubbed "Hillary." Science team members selected the nicknames in honor of the earliest climbers to scale Mount Everest on Earth.

This view covers approximately 50 degrees of the compass from left to right. It is a mosaic assembled from frames Spirit took with the panoramic camera on sol 603 (Sept. 13, 2005). It was taken through a blue (430-nanometer) filter and is presented as a cylindrical projection.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/NMMNH
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