Imagine the bad luck if the bottom of Eagle had held a MER immobilizing sandy bottom and all it could do is sit on its landing base and stare out at what might have been. Of course, that crater would probably have been given a very different name, then.

Brian

Spirit came quite close to landing in Bonneville. THAT would have been awful.

I was so amazed that I fainted and they had to rush me to the hospital. I just now returned and was warned to stay away from UMSF for my health.

Yeah -- my first reaction was "It's a masonry crater." It looks, for all the world, like a laid fieldstone structure, made in the shape of a crater, with the interior polished into a smooth bowl.

It may well be that the action of Martian winds as they swirl around the crater's interior is enough, all by itself, to have smoothed the interior to the degree we see. It's also evident that a portion of the interior rim has *not* been smoothed, or has been roughened since the crater interior was "polished." That portion lies to the right of center in our current view.

Another indication of varying rates of erosion is the "ray" that extends from between the one and two o'clock positions in our current view (with the nearest point of the near rim being the six o'clock position). This appears to be a classic impact ray from above (in the MOC image), but from this angle, it looks significantly *less* blocky than the surface we're on. What it *does* look like is a small ridge of evaporite, with its once-exposed evaporite blocks having been worn down smooth. The ridge is not really populated by the blocky evaporite (and other rock type) debris we see around the rest of the crater. I'd guess the ridge is a deformation of the shocked Victoria debris apron that the Beagle impactor struck -- perhaps a seismic reflection from a somewhat deeper structure created when Victoria's ejecta blanket was emplaced. Or maybe it was already there, a ridge of Victoria debris, and Beagle just happen to smack right down onto it...

So -- the "ray" looks more like a deformation feature than an ejecta feature, that has been preferentially eroded down flat, as has much (but not all) of Beagle's inner rim. I'd bet the less-eroded, blockier portions of Beagle and its ejecta blanket are more wind-shadowed than the polished portions.

-the other Doug

Updated Sol 896 Quicktime VR here

Now, I see the disparity between what I was previously describing and what fredk was describing. When I looked at the "drive direction pancams, I saw an obvious ray. What I saw was not likely obvious to anyone looking only at the flat images. In the "drive direction" anaglyphs it seems that the 7 o'clock ray fredk identified on the orbital photo extends into the left field of view of the "drive direction" pancams. It is visible as an elevated topographic feature, some of which is partially covered in sand/dust, so it may not be clearly represented as a bright ray in the orbital view. However, it does appear to be a linear pile of rubble extending radially away from Opportunitiy's sol 896 location near the rim of Beagle. It is composed of ejecta on top of the bedrock to either side of it, though the ejecta is partially covered by aeolian deposits. It is most apparent in 3D views, but if you look for it, you might see it in the flat panorama.

With a little luck, in about 10 minutes we might get imagery from the following sol.

I agree with you on this, Tom. Interesting, that extension of the 7 o'clock ray.

To my recollection these are the first crater rays we've seen up close - perhaps on the moon though? Cool stuff!

Well no new images today (just tau) by the looks of it.

Tomorrowsol should be good though

Yeah. I can't comment on lunar rays, but this is the first one we've virtually sat upon on a body with an atmosphere and weather. The tosol images I was hoping for have not yet arrived, so I must call it a night and hope for a surprise in the morning.

Back in the olden days of first explorations of the Americas, people would come across deserted landscapes with odd topography and the first thing that would come to mind is that they were looking at areas where creation had for some reason not been completed, or had somehow been subjected to a lack of detail in the manufacturing of the area. "God never finished this, and we were never meant to see the poor handiwork," was the general impression.

It is the same impression I get of Beagle. It is as if a texture has been applied to a surface in a computer graphics sort of way. Nobody expected us to get this close and see the poor handiwork....

It is a very odd feeling. Like we are standing on the fringes of creation.

Scott

Here is the panoramic view from Sol 896.

Taken with the L2 pancam.

jvandriel

and the complete 360 degree panoramic view from Sol 891.

Taken with the R0 navcam.

jvandriel

This is not the bodge-work of some amateur creator, but the product of something MUCH more powerful:-

*TIME*

aeons of it.

Really old landscapes often seem weird and alien.

Nick

This is a new and alien landscape because it is a new landscape. For many, many months we've been travelling over an old aeolian peneplain covered by recent sand ripples and gravel lag deposits. The soft evaporite has been planed flat by aeolian processes and the bedding orientation is essentially flat with slight dip in some direction. Beagle, OTOH, is the youngest feature we have encountered and represents an intermediate point in the weathering-erosion-deposition process. I hvae trouble reconciling what I see on the surface the interior bowl of Beagle with what I see on the surface of the surrounding plain; I am going to wait for more imagery before making another public "doh".

However, if you look at jvandriel's L2 Pancam panorama in post #311 of this thread you can see another ejecta ray consisting of evaporite fragments and sand on the left side of that panorama. This ray is more evident when you also look at the next frame to the left of this panorama.

--Bill

Hi Ant,

don't worry: sometimes single postings just get kind of "buried" under a succession of new posts,
especially in high-traffic threads like this and during exciting phases of the mission like just now with the
arrival at Beagle ...

I too think that it's sometimes a bit unfortunate that some posts happen to be placed near the
bottom of the page and then get "lost" if many new postings make the thread quickly switch to a new page ...



Nice new color imagery you posted ... always interesting to see the different color "interpretations"
in the absence of calibrated "true color" data

Q&D polar from jvandriel's Sol 891 pan. Thanks to jvandriel for the original.
Click to view attachment

QUOTE (Nirgal @ Aug 3 2006, 12:56 PM)

Hi Ant,
don't worry: sometimes single postings just get kind of "buried" under a succession of new posts,
especially in high-traffic threads like this and during exciting phases of the mission like just now with the
arrival at Beagle ...
I too think that it's sometimes a bit unfortunate that some posts happen to be placed near the
bottom of the page and then get "lost" if many new postings make the thread quickly switch to a new page ...

Nice new color imagery you posted ... always interesting to see the different color "interpretations"
in the absence of calibrated "true color" data

+ different timing between US & Europe... and you'll get remarks rigth in the middle of your night

Mars is weird. In some places the aeons of time seem to have little effect. In other places, tremendous effects. If something is sheltered from the wind, it doesn't change, if it is in an area where wind constantly blows, it is eroded to fine dust.

Scott

Damn, that sure is a great title:

Standing on the Fringes of Creation


Goes along well my "A Thousand Martian Sunsets" title idea.

Personally I'm just spoiled by the daily stream of amazing images, and also try not to post too much "ooh!" and "Ahh!"... but here's a periodic, generalised, heartfelt "Thanks!" to everyone who takes the time to create images, be they route maps, MIs, pans,.. Actually I meant to say 'Thanks' to Mr Ellison for his MI image the other day, I love the intimacy -- and to you for yours - they're complementary in a way. One might say, science and art, respectively. So Hail! Ant-103

Seconded! I look at all the imagery here and take it for granted-- thanks to all who contribute!

Okay

I began to start to imagine that I'm transparent or that my pictures are not so good...

You rassure me now

Me too I'm amazed of the quality of the pictures who are on the forum. So ... hail Mars!

898 right navcam panorama
Click to view attachment

Ant103: It often gets fast and furious around here, so sometimes things get lost in the wind, so to speak. I think it is fair to say that your dedicated work is appreciated. I'm sorry that more of us hadn't stopped to offer you encouragement.
...
Well, I guess Opportunity moved toward a part of the 7 o'clock ray. I did expect a slightly larger move, though.

Happy to see you're using "the right" camera, alan!

Here two alternative views of (B)Eagle crate, first one is autostitched "fish-eye" mosaic while second one is a vertical stretch clearly showing VC North rim (in this case I made a manual stitch so matching is good only on the horizon):
Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

And an anaglyph to complete the set

WOW ! even more impressive view of the crater than on the previous sols

Nice to see you too are using the fish-eye stitching (I've been using this kind of lens geometry too recently
for my "cockpit-window pan" and planning to do even more of my panoramas "fish-eyed" in the future

Thanks, Bernhard. The fish eye view is not only evocative, it helps to reduce area distorsion...
Thanks for the anaglyphed stitch, Abalone. I was looking for!

>Well, I guess Opportunity moved toward a part of the 7 o'clock ray. I did expect a slightly larger move, though.

It's a good stop along the traverse and might even generate some pretty pictures...

--Bill

Polar version of Alan's 898 pan

Phil

Click to view attachment

I will have to say that this is by far the coolest of the little craters we have encountered (in other words, besides Endurance and soon Victoria).

Cool indeed. A couple features of note nearby:

A very nice "mini crater" (or whatever) and similar structures (original image):
Click to view attachment

Curious ripple-like striations (?) (original frame):
Click to view attachment

Yes! There are beaucoup nifty features in this locale. The first is an anatolia feature, as we've seen since Eagle crater. But this seems to be an early or young feature of this type. The mini-ripples in the second image are likely due to an unsual wind pattern downwind of Beagle and/or a different particle size in the sand. Of note, this area is on the "dark, sandy ray" I mentioned earlier.

I'd like to dip the IDD into the sand on the floor of Beagle and get an idea of the particle size distribution. That could give us a handle on the current wind velocities at Beagle.

I'm like a kid in a geological candy shop...

--Bill

Almost like a miniature version of what we are seeing in some of the craters.

Looking back over Oppy's trip, the only time I've noticed ripples this small (if that's what these are) is inside craters: Eagle, Endurance, and Naturaliste.

Ahh, the memories...

I didn't even know we'd seen a crater called "Naturaliste"...!!!

They look a bit like laminations or dare I say it cross laminations maybe it's a partly covered rock or even a highly eroded rock.
Roy F

Here is a lighter version of the complete Beagle panorama.

Taken with the R0 navcam on Sol 898.

jvandriel

There is a QuickTime VR version for those interested. (Left Navcam. Deal with it.)

Comparing the bottom surface of among Oppy's craters: Eagle, Endurance, Beagle and Victoria. The Eagle crater has very smooth surface and almost nothing ripples but the ones of Endurance has bigger ripples and the ones of Victoria has much bigger ripples. The size of ripples might be related to the size of the crater that attract as tunneling the winds into the crater. The Beagle crater has ripples but not so big as the Endurance. That is an hypothesis: Bigger crater, has bigger ripples on the bottom.

Rodolfo

beautiful work.

and something amazing is that a version of this is already on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_%28crater%29

perhaps its always virtually instant, but hadnt noticed it before

Thanks Michael for posting these QTVR panos (I specially appreciate due to MMB Panorama malfunction in my PC!)

Another similar feature from Sol900 right sundial pictures (R1+4+7, color processed):

CosmicRocker's "ray" (maybe we should call it "Cosmic Ray" ), 4x2 Pancam L2 mosaic, 60 degree MMB perspective view (good luck doing this one with Autostitch - at least I couldn't):



I haven't had time to adjust the frame brightness and anti-vignetting yet, maybe later.

90-degree perspective view:



They actually seem more interested in the ray than in the crater at this point.

New pancam imagery of the "mini ripple field" or whatever it is:
Click to view attachment

The ripples almost have a terraced look about them.

Nope, they just like that cute penguin

Cosmic ray, huh? I like that. I accepted the challenge and did it in Autostitch. I mainly wanted an excuse to try Indian3000's nifty Mars Rover Center anti-vignetting tool. The batch operation and automatic file renaming is very convenient. Brightness was adjusted in Autostitch with gain compensation.

Click to view attachment

Maybe that's it. I thought it was because "Ray" Arvidson is filling in as PI.

(dodges tomatoes..)

Very nice. I think I'll stop messing with Autostitch and see if there's anything I can do with PanoTools.