Opportunity's poking at Marquette Island; Cassini's catching dancing moons

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla

2009/11/18 04:58 CST

Topics: amateur image processing, Mars Exploration Rovers, Opportunity, Cassini, pretty pictures, Enceladus, Rhea, Saturn's moons, animation

Since tomorrow's class is going to be on playing with raw images from the rovers and Cassini, I've been playing with recent raw images from the rovers and Cassini! I just thought I'd share a couple of the fun items I've been working with.

Opportunity has paused for a few sols to examine a large rock that, for once, is not a meteorite. This one is named "Marquette Island." Among the work they've been doing on Marquette is to take a 13-filter set of Pancam images, which can be merged in various combinations to study how the color of Marquette differs from its surroundings. More scientifically, the rover data can be used to study Marquette's spectral properties, which are related to its composition (or at least the composition of its surface), but the raw images aren't suitable for that kind of spectral analysis. They can be used to make neat pictures though!

NASA / JPL / Cornell / color composite by Emily Lakdawalla

Marquette Island in enhanced color

Opportunity paused to study the rock named "Marquette Island" on sol 2063 (November 12, 2009).

It looks like they are now going to try to brush at the surface to see if the color -- which looks an awful lot like the soil behind it -- changes when the surface coating of dust is brushed off. Here's a fresh-from-Mars Hazcam image of Opportunity's RAT poised on the surface of Marquette Island.

NASA / JPL

Opportunity's RAT on Marquette Island, sol 2068 (November 17, 2009)

Opportunity paused in its trek toward Endeavour crater to place the Rock Abrasion Tool on a rock named "Marquette Island."

Finally, in the outer solar system, Cassini's been taking movie pictures again. This is a particularly nice set; Enceladus is the moon held still in the viewfinder while Rhea rushes behind it.