[meteorite-list] Curiosity Rover's Images Show Laser Flash on Martian Rock

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 14:20:26 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201407162120.s6GLKRbl001163_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-232

NASA Rover's Images Show Laser Flash on Martian Rock
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
July 16, 2014

Flashes appear on a baseball-size Martian rock in a series of images
taken Saturday, July 12 by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on
the arm of NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover. The flashes occurred while the
rover's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument fired multiple laser
shots to investigate the rock's composition.

The images, strung together as a video, are available online at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/?id=1317

ChemCam's laser has zapped more than 600 rock and soil targets on Mars
since Curiosity landed in the planet's Gale Crater in August 2012.

"This is so exciting! The ChemCam laser has fired more than 150,000
times on Mars, but this is the first time we see the plasma plume that
is created," said ChemCam Deputy Principal Investigator Sylvestre
Maurice, at the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology, of
France's National Center for Scientific Research and the University of
Toulouse, France. "Each time the laser hits a target, the plasma light
is caught and analyzed by ChemCam's spectrometers. What the new images
add is confirmation that the size and shape of the spark are what we
anticipated under Martian conditions."

Preliminary analysis of the ChemCam spectra from this target rock,
appropriately named "Nova," indicates a composition rich in silicon,
aluminum and sodium, beneath a dust layer poor in those elements. This
is typical of rocks that Curiosity is encountering on its way toward
Mount Sharp.

MAHLI Deputy Principal Investigator Aileen Yingst of the Planetary
Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona, said, "One of the reasons we took
these images is that they allow the ChemCam folks to compare the plume
to those they imaged on Earth. Also, MAHLI has captured images of other
activities of Curiosity, for documentation purposes, and this was an
opportunity to document the laser in action."

Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, developed, built and operates
MAHLI. The U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory,
in Los Alamos, New Mexico, developed ChemCam in partnership with
scientists and engineers funded by the French national space agency
(CNES), the University of Toulouse and France's National Center for
Scientific Research.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity to assess
ancient habitable environments and major changes in Martian
environmental conditions. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division
of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, built the rover and
manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about Curiosity, visit these sites:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl , http://www.nasa.gov/msl and
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/

You can follow the mission on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at:
http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2014-232
Received on Wed 16 Jul 2014 05:20:26 PM PDT