Rock "Tintina" Exposes "Yellowknife Bay" Vein Material . photonado

Versions: 75 100 250 500 650 800 1024 1600 Original

Rock "Tintina" Exposes "Yellowknife Bay" Vein Material

This raw image of "Tintina," a broken rock fragment in a rover wheel track, was taken by Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam). When Curiosity drove over Tintina, the rock broke apart and exposed a fresh, bright white surface that may be the same as similarly bright material filling pale veins in the nearby bedrock of the "Yellowknife Bay" area. The Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took this image of Tintina during the 160th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Jan. 17, 2013). The size of the rock is roughly 1.2 inches by 1.6 inches (3 centimeters by 4 centimeters). Curiosity's Mastcam was built and is operated by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project and the mission's Curiosity rover for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The rover was designed and assembled at JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ .

Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Image released by NASA on: 2013-03-18