“Home Plate” Reached by Spirit Rover Puzzles Scientists

Associated Press
Albuquerque Tribune
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Los Angeles (US):
The Mars rover Spirit has hit a home run by landing in a rugged plateau dubbed "Home Plate," but scientists are still trying to decipher its geology.
The six-wheeled Spirit reached the northern edge of the broad mesa last week about four months after climbing down from a Martian hill as tall as the Statue of Liberty. Scientists believe Home Plate - which stands about 6 feet tall - holds important geologic clues to the Red Planet's past. So far, scientists say they are puzzled by what they have seen.
Unlike other areas of Gusev Crater that Spirit has analyzed, "Home Plate" is made of highly layered rocks that are coarse at the bottom and fine at the top. "It's stunning . . . by far the best layering we've ever seen at Gusev," principal investigator Steve Squyres of Cornell University posted on his Web site.
Squyres said it's too early to say what the rocks are made of, or how it fits into the Mars story.
feb 15, 2006