A Berry Bowl of Martian Spherules
How were these unusual Martian spherules created?
Thousands of
unusual gray spherules, made of
iron and rock but dubbed
blueberries, were found embedded in and
surrounding rocks near the
landing site of the robot
Opportunity rover on
Mars.
To help investigate their origin, Opportunity found a
surface dubbed the Berry Bowl with an indentation that was
rich in the Martian orbs.
The Berry Bowl is
pictured above, imaged during rover's
48th Sol on Mars.
The average diameter of a blueberry is only about 4 millimeters.
By analyzing a circular patch in the rock surface to the
left of the densest patch of spherules,
Opportunity obtained
data showing that the underlying rock has a much different
composition than the
hematite rich blueberries.
This information contributes to the growing
consensus is that these small, strange,
gray orbs were slowly deposited from a bath of
dirty water.