[meteorite-list] NASA's Opportunity Rover Gets Panorama Image at 'Wdowiak Ridge'

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4341

NASA's Opportunity Rover Gets Panorama Image at 'Wdowiak Ridge'
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
October 16, 2014

The latest fieldwork site for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, 
which has been examining a series of Martian craters since 2004, is on 
the slope of a prominent hill jutting out of the rim of a large crater 
and bearing its own much smaller crater. It's called "Wdowiak Ridge."

"Wdowiak Ridge sticks out like a sore thumb. We want to understand why 
this ridge is located off the primary rim of Endeavour Crater and how 
it fits into the geologic story of this region," said Opportunity science-team 
member Jim Rice of the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona.

The ridge extends about 500 feet (about 150 meters) long and stands about 
40 feet (12 meters) above surrounding ground, about two football fields' 
distance outside the main crest line of Endeavour Crater's western rim.

The science team calls it "Wdowiak Ridge" [DOW-ee-ak] as a tribute to 
former team member Thomas J. Wdowiak (1939-2013), who taught astronomy 
for decades at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.

A new vista from Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) looks northward 
from near the southern end of Wdowiak Ridge and shows the hill with the 
rover's tracks along its base, at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA18614

"Tom would have enjoyed this view," said Rice, who first knew of Wdowiak 
as the enthusiastic outer-space expert who appeared on local television 
when Rice was a grade-schooler in Alabama in the 1960s.

"Decades later, when I was selected by NASA to be on the Mars rover science 
team with him, I told Tom I was one of the kids he inspired," Rice said. 
"Inspiring young people to become interested in space exploration is important 
to us on this mission."

Opportunity approached Wdowiak Ridge from the north on the rover's traverse 
along the western rim of Endeavour crater, which is about 14 miles (22 
kilometers) in diameter. The rover is now examining rocks that were tossed 
outward by an impact that dug a crater 100 feet wide (30 meters) into 
the southern end of the ridge. That much-smaller crater is called "Ulysses."

"Ulysses is punched down into Wdowiak Ridge, so this boulder field around 
the crater gives us samples of different types of rocks from inside the 
ridge," said Opportunity Principal Investigator Steve Squyres, of Cornell 
University, Ithaca, New York. "Wdowiak Ridge is one on the most dramatic 
topographic features we've seen on this mission. Why does it stand up 
the way it does? Is it especially resistant to erosion? What formed it?"

During Opportunity's first decade on Mars and the 2004-2010 career of 
its twin, Spirit, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project yielded a range 
of findings proving wet environmental conditions on ancient Mars -- some 
very acidic, others milder and more conducive to supporting life.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute 
of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project 
for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. For more information 
about Spirit and Opportunity, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/rovers

and

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov

You can follow the project on Twitter and on Facebook at:

http://twitter.com/MarsRovers

and

http://www.facebook.com/mars.rovers

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

2014-358