The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover examined a freshly brushed area on target rock "Christmas Cove" and found spectral evidence of hematite, an iron-oxide mineral. ChemCam sometimes zaps rocks with a laser, but can also be used, as in this case, in a "passive" mode. In this type of investigation, the instrument's telescope delivers to spectrometers the sunlight reflected from a small target point. The upper-left inset of this graphic is an image from ChemCam's Remote Micro-Imager with five labeled points that the instrument analyzed. The image covers an area about 2 inches (5 centimeters) wide, and the bright lines are fractures in the rock filled with calcium sulfate minerals. The five charted lines of the graphic correspond to those five points and show the spectrometer measurements of brightness at thousands of different wavelengths, from 400 nanometers (at the violet end of the visible-light spectrum) to 840 nanometers (in near-infrared). Sections of the spectrum measurements that are helpful for identifying hematite are annotated. These include a dip around 535 nanometers, the green-light portion of the spectrum at which fine-grained hematite tends to absorb more light and reflect less compared to other parts of the spectrum. That same green-absorbing characteristic of the hematite makes it appear purplish when imaged through special filters of Curiosity's Mast Camera and even in usual color images. The spectra also show maximum reflectance values near 750 nanometers, followed by a steep decrease in the spectral slope toward 840 nanometers, both of which are consistent with hematite. This ChemCam examination of Christmas Cove was part of an experiment to determine whether the rock had evidence of hematite under a tan coating of dust. The target area was brushed with Curiosity's Dust Removal Tool prior to these ChemCam passive observations on Sept. 17, 2017, during the 1,819th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22068

This mosaic shows the calibration target for the Chemistry and Camera ChemCam instrument on NASA Curiosity rover, as seen by the ChemCam remote micro-imager. The 10 images incorporated in this mosaic were taken on Aug. 15.

This image from the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows detailed texture of a rock target called "Elk" on Mars' Mount Sharp, revealing laminations that are present in much of the Murray Formation geological unit of lower Mount Sharp. Researchers also used ChemCam's laser and spectrometers to assess Elk's composition and found it to be rich in silica. The image covers a patch of rock surface about 2.8 inches (7 centimeters) across. It was taken on May 22, 2015, during the mission's 992nd Martian day, or sol. ChemCam's Remote Micro-Imager camera, on top of Curiosity's mast, captured the image from a distance of about 9 feet (2.75 meters). Annotations in red identify five points on Elk that were hit with ChemCam's laser. Each of the highlighted points is a location where ChemCam fired its laser 30 times to ablate a tiny amount of target material. By analyzing the light emitted from this laser-ablation, researchers can deduce the composition of that point. For some purposes, composition is presented as a combination of the information from multiple points on the same rock. However, using the points individually can track fine-scale variations in targets. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20267

The dark, golf-ball-size object in this composite, colorized view from the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows a grid of shiny dots where ChemCam had fired laser pulses used for determining the chemical elements in the target's composition. The analysis confirmed that this object, informally named "Egg Rock," is an iron-nickel meteorite. Iron-nickel meteorites are a common class of space rocks found on Earth, and previous examples have been found on Mars, but Egg Rock is the first on Mars to be examined with a laser-firing spectrometer. The laser pulses on Oct. 30, 2016, induced bursts of glowing gas at the target, and ChemCam's spectrometer read the wavelengths of light from those bursts to gain information about the target's composition. The laser pulses also burned through the dark outer surface, exposing bright interior material. This view combines two images taken later the same day by ChemCam's remote micro-imager (RMI) camera, with color added from an image taken by Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam). A Mastcam image of Egg Rock is at PIA21134. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21133

This image shows the calibration target for the Chemistry and Camera ChemCam instrument on NASA Curiosity rover. The calibration target is one square and a group of nine circles that look dark in the black-and-white image.

This view of a rock called Rocknest 3 combines two images taken by the Chemistry and Camera ChemCam instrument on the NASA Mars rover Curiosity and indicates five spots where ChemCam had hit the rock with laser pulses to check its composition.

The highest concentration of boron measured on Mars, as of late 2016, is in this mineral vein, called "Catabola," examined with the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity rover on Aug, 25, 2016, during Sol 1441 of the mission. This two-part illustration shows the context of the erosion-resistant, raised vein, in an image from Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam), and a detailed inset image from ChemCam's remote micro-imager. The inset includes indicators of the boron content measured at 10 points along the vein that were analyzed with ChemCam's laser-firing spectrometer. The vein's main component is calcium sulfate. The highest boron content identified is less than one-tenth of one percent. The heights of the orange bars at each point indicate relative abundance of boron, compared with boron content at other points. The scale bar for the inset is 9.2 millimeters, or about 0.36 inch. The ChemCam image is enhanced with color information from Mastcam. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21251

The two main parts of the ChemCam laser instrument for NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission are shown in this combined image.

This graph shows a spectrum recorded by the Chemistry and Camera instrument ChemCam in NASA Curiosity Mars rover; it is is typical of Martian volcanic basalt material.

This image provides an example of the type of data collected by the Chemistry and Camera ChemCam instrument on NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission Curiosity rover.

The Chemistry and Camera ChemCam instrument on NASA Mars rover Curiosity was used to check the composition of gray tailings from the hole in rock target Cumberland that the rover drilled on May 19, 2013.

This pair of images taken a few minutes apart show how laser firing by NASA Mars rover Curiosity removes dust from the surface of a rock. The images were taken by the remote micro-imager camera in the laser-firing Chemistry and Camera ChemCam.

The ChemCam instrument on NASA Curiosity Mars rover fired its laser 50 times at its onboard graphite target showing spectral measurements from the first shot, which hit dust on the target, compared to spectral measurements of from the 50th shot.

The ChemCam instrument for NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission uses a pulsed laser beam to vaporize a pinhead-size target, producing a flash of light from the ionized material plasma that can be analyzed to identify chemical elements in the target.

The ChemCam instrument for NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission uses a pulsed laser beam to vaporize a pinhead-size target, producing a flash of light from the ionized material plasma that can be analyzed to identify chemical elements in the target.

This diagram shows how materials analyzed by the ChemCam instrument on NASA Curiosity Mars rover during the first 100 Martian days of the mission differed with regard to hydrogen content horizontal axis and alkali vertical axis.

Researchers prepare for a test of the Chemistry and Camera ChemCam instrument that will fly on NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission; researchers are preparing the instrument mast unit for a laser firing test.

This image displays the type of detail discernable with the telescopic camera of the Chemistry and Camera ChemCam instrument on the Mars Science Laboratory mission Curiosity rover.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its ChemCam instrument to view boulders on Gediz Vallis Ridge Nov. 15 to 17, 2022, the 3,653rd to 3,655th Martian days, or sols, of the mission. These boulders are thought to have been washed down in a debris flows in the ancient past and are probably some of the youngest evidence of liquid water Curiosity will see on Mount Sharp. Curiosity has been ascending the foothills of the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain since 2014. Water ebbed and flowed on Mount Sharp billions of years ago, at times forming lakes and rivers that would dry up and flood repeatedly. Gediz Vallis is a part of the mountain where water once flowed down; Curiosity's scientists are interested in the ridge in part because it includes boulders like these that were washed down from much higher up the mountain, where Curiosity won't be able to reach. From left to right, the boulders depicted in the circles are approximately 984 feet (300 meters), 1,312 feet (400 meters), and 656 feet (200 meters) away. Based on these distances, the width of the boulders are estimated to be (again, from left to right) 4 feet (120 centimeters), 3.3 feet (100 centimeters), and 2 feet (60 centimeters). This scene is made up of 52 individual images captured by ChemCam's Remote Micro-Imager; the images were stitched together after being sent back to Earth. Early in the mission, the team discovered that the imager, originally designed to view targets shot by ChemCam's laser, can also be used like a telescope, looking at distant horizons rather than nearby rock textures. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25731

This mosaic shows various scenes captured from a location called "Housedon Hill" by the ChemCam instrument aboard NASA's Curiosity Mars rover between September 9 and October 23, 2020 (Sols 2878 and 2921). ChemCam uses a laser to zap rock and soil, then studies the resulting vapor to determine the composition of different material from a distance. The instrument's Remote Microscopic Imager camera takes black-and-white images so that scientists can look closely at the material before and after laser zaps. Early in the mission, the team discovered that the camera can be used like a telescope, looking at distant horizons rather than nearby rock textures. While parked at a location nicknamed "Mary Anning," they used the camera to repeatedly take pictures of the landscape, assembling them all into this long mosaic. This image includes the mosaic as well as several detail shots. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24262

This mosaic image shows the first target NASA Curiosity rover aims to zap ChemCam instrument. ChemCam will be firing a laser at this rock, provisionally named N165, and analyzing the glowing, ionized gas, called plasma, that the laser excites.

This map shows the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover (blue line) and locations where the rover's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument detected the element boron (dots, colored by abundance of boron according to the key at right). The main map shows the traverse from landing day (Sol 0) in August 2012 to the rover's location in September 2016, with boron detections through September 2015. The inset at upper left shows a magnified version of the most recent portion of that traverse, with boron detections during that portion. Overlapping dots represent cases when boron was detected in multiple ChemCam observation points in the same target and non-overlapping dots represent cases where two different targets in the same location have boron. Most of the mission's detections of boron have been made in the most recent seven months (about 200 sols) of the rover's uphill traverse. The base image for the map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. North is up. The scale bar at lower right represents one kilometer (0.62 mile). http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21150

The dark, smooth-surfaced object at the center of this Oct. 30, 2016, image from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover was examined with laser pulses and confirmed to be an iron-nickel meteorite. The grid of shiny points visible on the object resulted from that laser zapping by Curiosity's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument. The meteorite is about the size of a golf ball. It is informally named "Egg Rock," for a site in Maine. Locations around Bar Harbor, Maine, are the naming theme for an area on Mars' Mount Sharp that Curiosity reached in October. Iron-nickel meteorites are a common class of space rocks found on Earth, and previous examples have been found on Mars, but Egg Rock is the first on Mars to be examined with a laser-firing spectrometer. The scene is presented with a color adjustment that approximates white balancing, to resemble how the rocks and sand would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. Figure 1 includes a scale bar of 5 centimeters (about 2 inches). http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21134

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used the Remote Micro Imager, part of its ChemCam instrument, to view this wind-eroded rock shaped like a piece of coral on July 24, 2025, the 4,609th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Curiosity has found many rocks like this one, which were formed by ancient water combined with billions of years of sandblasting by the wind. This particular rock is similar to one seen by Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager around the same time. Curiosity has found many small features like this one, which formed billions of years ago when liquid water still existed on Mars. Water carried dissolved minerals into rock cracks and later dried, leaving the hardened minerals behind. Eons of sandblasting by the wind wore away the surrounding rock, producing the unique shapes seen today. This common process, seen extensively on Earth, has produced fantastic shapes on Mars, including a flower-shaped rock. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26634

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its ChemCam instrument to capture Peace Vallis, an ancient river channel descending Gale Crater's rim, on Sept. 1, 2025 (the 4,647th Martian day, or sol, of the mission). The channel was about 19 miles (30 kilometers) from Curiosity as it explores the foothills of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain. The dark features scattered just left of center within the channel are rocky outcrops. While Curiosity has taken pictures of Peace Vallis in the past, this is the first time details like these have been seen within it. Water and sediment are believed to have flowed down Peace Vallis into Gale Crater billions of years ago, creating a fan of sediment across the crater floor. Studying the crater's watery past is part of Curiosity's overall mission to understand where and how well the ancient Martian landscape could have supported microbial life, if any ever formed there. ChemCam is equipped with the Remote Micro Imager, or RMI, a black-and-white camera that can be used like a small telescope to see distant features, creating a circular "spyglass" image. Ten RMI images were stitched together on Earth into a mosaic to create the panorama seen here. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26637

This artist conception of NASA Mars Science Laboratory portrays use of the rover ChemCam instrument to identify the chemical composition of a rock sample on the surface of Mars.

As NASA Mars rover Curiosity is progressing toward Mount Sharp, researchers are using the rover RIM and ChemCam instruments to examine soils and rocks in Gale Crater.

This artist concept depicts the rover Curiosity, of NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission, as it uses its Chemistry and Camera ChemCam instrument to investigate the composition of a rock surface.

This composite image, with magnified insets, depicts the first laser test by the Chemistry and Camera, or ChemCam, instrument aboard NASA Curiosity Mars rover.

NASA Curiosity Mars rover targeted the laser of the ChemCam instrument with remarkable accuracy for assessing the composition of the wall of a drilled hole and tailings that resulted from the drilling.

This image illustrates the principals of a technique called laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, which the Chemistry and Camera ChemCam instrument onboard NASA rover, Curiosity, will use on Mars.

Scientists used the ChemCam instrument on NASA Curiosity Mars rover to examine a Martian rock hell about one inch across, embedded in bedrock and with a hollow interior.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover autonomously selects some of the targets for the laser and telescopic camera of the rover's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument. For example, on-board software analyzed the image on the left, chose the target highlighted with the yellow dot, and pointed ChemCam to acquire laser analysis and the image on the right. Most ChemCam targets are still selected by scientists discussing rocks or soil seen in images the rover has sent to Earth, but the autonomous targeting provides an added capability. It can offer a head start on acquiring composition information at a location just reached by a drive. The software for target selection and instrument pointing is called AEGIS, for Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science. The image on the left was taken by the left eye of Curiosity's stereo Navigation Camera (Navcam) a few minutes after the rover completed a drive of about 43 feet (13 meters) on July 14, 2016, during the 1,400th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars. Using AEGIS for target selection and pointing based on the Navcam imagery, Curiosity's ChemCam zapped a grid of nine points on a rock chosen for meeting criteria set by the science team. In this run, parameters were set to find bright-toned outcrop rock rather than darker rocks, which in this area tend to be loose on the surface. Within less than 30 minutes after the Navcam image was taken, ChemCam had used its laser on all nine points and had taken before-and-after images of the target area with its remote micro-imager (RMI) camera. The image at right combines those two RMI exposures. The nine laser targets are marked in red at the center. On the Navcam image at left, the yellow dot identifies the selected target area, which is about 2.2 inches (5.6 centimeters) in diameter. An unannotated version of this Sol 1400 Navcam image is available. ChemCam records spectra of glowing plasma generated when the laser hits a target point. These spectra provide information about the chemical elements present in the target. The light-toned patch of bedrock identified by AEGIS on Sol 1400 appears, geochemically, to belong to the "Stimson" sandstone unit of lower Mount Sharp. In mid-2016, Curiosity typically uses AEGIS for selecting a ChemCam target more than once per week. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20762

Examination of a calcium sulfate vein called "Diyogha" by the Chemical and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover found boron, sodium and chlorine. At left, an image from Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) shows the context of the pale vein in mudstone of the Murray formation on lower Mount Sharp. A red outline marks the area included in a magnified view, at right, from ChemCam's remote micro-imager. The magnified view is annotated with indicators of boron, sodium and chlorine content detected by ChemCam at individual points hit with the instrument's laser. Targets such as Diyogha indicate that the calcium sulfate veins in the Murray bedrock may have a source that is rich in evaporite minerals. Boron, chlorine and sodium all can be present in evaporites. Diyogha was examined on Sept. 7, 2016, during the 1,454th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. The scale bar for the inset is 10.4 millimeters, or about 0.41 inch. The ChemCam image is enhanced with color information from Mastcam. The vein is whiter in the middle due to the dust being blown away by impact of the laser. Point 2 hits a pebble and not the sulfate vein, so its chemistry is not included on the figure. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21252

This image from the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows detailed texture of a rock target called "Yellowjacket" on Mars' Mount Sharp. This was the first rock target for ChemCam after checkout of restored capability for autonomous focusing. The image covers a patch of rock surface about 2.5 inches (6 centimeters) across. It was taken on May 15, 2015, during the mission's 986th Martian day, or sol. ChemCam's Remote Micro-Imager camera, on top of Curiosity's mast, captured the image from a distance of about 8 feet (2.4 meters). ChemCam also hit the target with laser pulses and recorded spectrographic information from the resulting flashes to reveal the chemical composition. Yellowjacket, located near an area called "Logan Pass" on lower Mount Sharp, is a layered sedimentary rock. The laser analysis yielded a composition very close to that of Mars soil and unlike the lakebed sedimentary compositions observed at lower elevations earlier in the mission. The soil-like composition may indicate that the rock formed from sediment transported by wind, rather than by water. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19661

These images from the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover indicate similarly dark material, but with very different chemistries, in mineral veins at "Garden City." Each of the side-by-side circular images covers an area about 2 inches (5 centimeters) in diameter. The images were taken by ChemCam's Remote Micro-Imager. Researchers used ChemCam's laser, telescope and spectrometers to examine the chemistry of material in these veins. While both of these veins are dark, their chemistries are very different, indicating that they were formed by different fluids. One common aspect of the chemistry in the dark material is an iron content higher than nearby bedrock. Thus the dark appearance may be result of similar iron content. The dark maerial in the vein on the left is enriched in calcium and contains calcium fluorine. The dark material in the vein on the right is enriched in magnesium, but not in calcium or calcium fluorine. Thus, the veins were formed by different fluids that deposited minerals in rock fractures. The Remote Micro-Imager took the image on the left on March 27, 2015, during the 938th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. The next day, it took the image on the right. A broader view of the prominent mineral veins at Garden City is at PIA19161. ChemCam is one of 10 instruments in Curiosity's science payload. The U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory, in Los Alamos, New Mexico, developed ChemCam in partnership with scientists and engineers funded by the French national space agency (CNES), the University of Toulouse and the French national research agency (CNRS). More information about ChemCam is available at http://www.msl-chemcam.com. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19924

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this view of a mountain nearly 57 miles (91 kilometers) away and outside of Gale Crater, where Curiosity landed in 2012. The rover is currently in the foothills of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain within the crater. Estimated to be 8,202 feet (2,500 meters) tall, the mountain's summit just peeks over the crater rim in the panorama. It has never been viewed with this much detail. Toward the lower left, dark rocky outcrops are visible. Curiosity captured the view with its black-and-white Remote Micro Imager, or RMI. Part of the rover's ChemCam instrument, RMI can be used like a small telescope to see distant features, creating a circular "spyglass" view. Ten RMI images taken on Aug. 28, 2025 (the 4,643rd Martian day, or sol of the mission) were stitched together to create the mosaic. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26638

This image shows where NASA Curiosity rover aimed two different instruments to study a rock known as Jake Matijevic. The red dots are where ChemCam zapped the rock with its laser.

The shape of the tip of the bit in the drill of NASA Mars rover Curiosity is apparent in this view recorded by the remote micro-imager in the rover ChemCam instrument on Mars. Jan. 29, 2012; the bit is about 0.6 inch 1.6 centimeters wide.

This image from an animation shows how repeated laser shots from the ChemCam instrument on NASA Mars rover Curiosity cause a pit to form at the target point in Martian soil.

The Chemistry and Camera ChemCam instrument on NASA Mars rover Curiosity used its laser and spectrometers to examine what chemical elements are in a drift of Martian sand during the mission 74th Martian day, or sol Oct. 20, 2012.

A day after NASA Mars rover Curiosity drilled the first sample-collection hole into a rock on Mars, the rover Chemistry and Camera ChemCam instrument shot laser pulses into the fresh rock powder that the drilling generated.

The Chemistry and Camera ChemCam instrument on NASA Mars rover Curiosity used its laser to examine side-by-side points in a target patch of soil, leaving the marks apparent in this before-and-after comparison.

This head-on view shows the tip of the drill bit on NASA Mars rover Curiosity. The view merges two exposures taken by the remote micro-imager in the rover ChemCam instrument at different focus settings.

This close-up image shows the first target NASA Curiosity rover aims to zap with its Chemistry and Camera ChemCam instrument. The instrument will analyze that spark with a telescope and identify the chemical elements in the target.

These images and overlay bar charts from the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover indicate where some high-potassium material is localized within mineral veins at "Garden City." The two images are from ChemCam's Remote Micro-Imager. Each covers an area just over an inch wide (scale bars are in millimeters) in veins at the Garden City site on lower Mount Sharp. The overlay charts show comparisons of potassium (blue) and iron (red) in the mineral veins' compositions determined by reading the spectra of light induced by zapping points in each area with ChemCam's laser. Mineral veins such as these form where fluids move through fractured rocks, depositing minerals in the fractures and affecting chemistry of the surrounding rock. The thin layer of dark fracture-filling material in the image on the right contains much more potassium than the other local material on the left, indicating either different fluid compositions or local variations in the rock. The image on the left was taken on April 4, 2015, during the 946th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. The image on the right was taken on Sol 936, on March 25, 2015. A broader view of the prominent mineral veins at Garden City is at PIA19161. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19923

This is the first laser spectrum from the ChemCam instrument on NASA Curiosity rover, sent back from Mars on Aug. 19, 2012, showing emission lines from different elements present in the target, a rock near the rover landing site dubbed Coronation.

Since landing on Mars in August 2012, NASA Curiosity Mars rover has fired the laser on its Chemistry and Camera ChemCam instrument more than 100,000 times at rock and soil targets up to about 23 feet 7 meters away.

This series of pie charts shows similarities and differences in the mineral compositions of mudstones at 10 sites where NASA's Curiosity Mars rover collected rock-powder samples and analyzed them with the rover's Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument. The charts are arrayed in chronological order, with an indication of relative elevation as the rover first sampled two sites on the floor of Gale Crater in 2013 and later began climbing the crater's central mound, Mount Sharp. The pie chart farthest to the right and uphill shows composition at the "Sebina" target, sampled in October 2016. Five non-mudstone rock targets that the rover drilled and analyzed within this time frame are not included. The mineralogical variations in these mudstones may be due to differences in any or all of these factors: the source materials deposited by water that entered lakes, the processes of sedimentation and rock forming, and how the rocks were later altered. One trend that stands out is that the mineral jarosite -- shown in purple -- was more prominent in the "Pahrump Hills" area of lower Mount Sharp than at sites examined either earlier or later. Jarosite is an indicator of acidic water. Mudstone layers uphill from Pahrump Hills have barely detectable amounts of jarosite, indicating a shift away from acidic conditions in these overlying -- thus younger -- layers. Clay minerals, shown as green, declined in abundance at sites midway through this series, then came back as the rover climbed higher. Each drilled-and-analyzed target is identified with a two-letter abbreviation: JK for "John Klein," CB for "Cumberland." CH for "Confidence Hills," MJ for "Mojave," TP for "Telegraph Peak," BK for "Buckskin," OD for "Oudam," MB for "Marimba," QL for "Quela," and SB for Sebina. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21146

This view of "Vera Rubin Ridge" from the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows multiple sedimentary layers and fracture-filling deposits of minerals. Buried layers of what is now a ridge became fractured, and the fractures were filled with mineral deposits precipitated from underground fluids that moved through the fractures. ChemCam's telescopic Remote Micro-Imager took the 10 component images of this mosaic on July 3, 2017, during the 1,745th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. The camera was about 377 feet (115 meters) away from the pictured portion of the ridge. The rover's location at the time, shown in a Sol 1741 traverse map, was west of the place where it began its ascent up the ridge about two months later. The scale bar at lower right indicates how wide a feature 9 inches (22.8 centimeters) in width would look in the middle portion of the scene. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21852

This view of "Vera Rubin Ridge" from the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows sedimentary layers, mineral veins and effects of wind erosion. This area of lower Mount Sharp became a ridge by being more resistant to erosion than neighboring portions of the layered mountain. Here, the wind has eroded portions of the outcrop in unusual ways, so that elongated rock fragments can be seen protruding into the sky. ChemCam's telescopic Remote Micro-Imager took the 10 component images of this mosaic on Aug. 24, 2017, during the 1,795th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. The camera was about 141 feet (43 meters) away from the pictured portion of the ridge. The rover's location at the time, in relation to the ridge, is shown in a Sol 1794 traverse map. The scale bar at lower right indicates how wide a feature 3.3 inches (8.5 centimeters) in width would look in the middle portion of the scene. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21853

This image shows the calibration target for the Chemistry and Camera instrument on NASA Curiosity rover before it was installed on the rover and readied for launch.

A Martian target rock called Nova, shown here, displayed an increasing concentration of aluminum as a series of laser shots from NASA Curiosity Mars rover penetrated through dust on the rock surface.

This 360-degree panorama shows the "Marias Pass" area, at center, and part of the slope that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover climbed to get there, at right. The scene combines multiple images taken by Curiosity's Navigation Camera (Navcam) on May 22, 2105, during the 992nd Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars. North is at both ends; south is in the middle. On the previous sol, Curiosity reached this location by climbing a slope with steepness of up to 20 degrees. From this location, the rover's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument examined a rock target called "Elk" and found its composition to be about 80 percent silica. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20266

This view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) in NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the "Marias Pass" area where a lower and older geological unit of mudstone -- the pale zone in the center of the image -- lies in contact with an overlying geological unit of sandstone. Just before Curiosity reached Marias Pass, the rover's laser-firing Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument examined a rock found to be rich in silica, a mineral-forming chemical. This scene combines several images taken on May 22, 2015, during the 992nd Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. The scene is presented with a color adjustment that approximates white balancing, to resemble how the rocks and sand would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/?IDNumber=pia20174

Curiosity's Russian-made instrument for checking hydration levels in the ground beneath the rover detected an unusually high amount at a site near "Marias Pass," prompting repeated passes over the area to map the hydrogen amounts. The instrument is named Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons, or DAN. It detects hydrogen by the effect of hydrogen atoms on neutrons entering the ground either from cosmic rays and Curiosity's power source (DAN's passive mode) or from the instrument's neutron pulse generator (DAN's active mode). DAN recognizes which neutrons have bounced off hydrogen from their rerduced energy level. This map, covering an area about 130 feet (40 meters) across, shows results from DAN's multiple traverses over the area, with color coding for levels of hydrogen detected. The red coding indicates amounts of hydrogen three to four times as high as the amounts detected anywhere previously along Curiosity's traverse of about 6.9 miles (11.1 kilometers) since landing in August 2012. The inset map at lower right shows the full traverse through Sol 1051 (July 21, 2015), with names assigned to rectangles within Gale Crater for geological mapping purposes. The vertical bar at left indicates the color coding according to counts per second in DAN's passive mode. The hydrogen detected by DAN is interpreted as water molecules or hydroxyl ions bound within minerals or water absorbed onto minerals in the rocks and soil, to a depth of about 3 feet (1 meter) beneath the rover. The amount of hydrogen is often expressed as "water equivalent hydrogen" based on two hydrogen atoms per molecule of water. In the same area where DAN detected an unusually high amount of hydration, Curiosity's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument detected an unusually high amount of silica in several rock targets. The DAN and ChemCam findings led to the rover's science team choosing a rock target called "Buckskin" for collection of a drilled sample to be analyzed by the rover's internal laboratory instruments. Russia's Space Research Institute developed DAN in close cooperation with the N.L. Dukhov All-Russia Research Institute of Automatics, Moscow, and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna. The neutron generator development was supervised by the late technical designer German A. Smirnov of the All-Russia Institute of Automatics. Moscow. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19809

A rock fragment dubbed "Lamoose" is shown in this picture taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on NASA's Curiosity rover. Like other nearby rocks in a portion of the "Marias Pass" area of Mt. Sharp, Mars, it has unusually high concentrations of silica. The high silica was first detected in the area by the Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) laser spectrometer. This rock was targeted for follow-up study by the MAHLI and the arm-mounted Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS). Silica is a rock-forming compound containing silicon and oxygen, commonly found on Earth as quartz. High levels of silica could indicate ideal conditions for preserving ancient organic material, if present, so the science team wants to take a closer look. The rock is about 4 inches (10 centimeters) across. It is fine-grained, perhaps finely layered, and etched by the wind. The image was taken on the 1,041st Martian day, or sol, of the mission (July 11, 2015). MAHLI was built by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19828

This self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at a drilled sample site called "Okoruso," on the "Naukluft Plateau" of lower Mount Sharp. The scene combines multiple images taken with the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on May 11, 2016, during the 1,338th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars. In front of the rover is the hole, surrounded by grayish drill cuttings, created by using Curiosity's drill to collect sample rock powder at Okoruo, plus a patch of powder dumped onto the ground after delivery of a portion to the rover's internal Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) laboratory instrument. The rover team compared the rock powder from drilling at Okoruso to material from the nearby "Lubango" drilling site, which is visible behind the rover, just to the left of the mast. The Lubango site was selected within a pale zone, or "halo," beside a fracture in the area's sandstone bedrock. Okoruso is in less-altered bedrock farther from any fractures. Note that the Okoruso drill cuttings appear darker than the Lubango drill cuttings. The Lubango sample was found to be enriched in silica and sulfates, relative to Okoruso. To the left of the rover, in this scene, several broken rocks reveal grayish interiors. Here, Curiosity was driven over the rocks in a fracture-associated halo, so that freshly exposed surfaces could be examined with MAHLI, Mast Camera (Mastcam) and Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instruments. An upper portion of Mount Sharp is prominent on the horizon. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20602

This self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the "Quela" drilling location in the "Murray Buttes" area on lower Mount Sharp. Key features on the skyline of this panorama are the dark mesa called "M12" to the left of the rover's mast and pale, upper Mount Sharp to the right of the mast. The top of M12 stands about 23 feet (7 meters) above the base of the sloping piles of rocks just behind Curiosity. The scene combines approximately 60 images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the rover's robotic arm. Most of the component images were taken on Sept. 17, 2016, during the 1,463rd Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. Two component images of the drill-hole area in front of the rover were taken on Sol 1466 (Sept. 20) to show the hole created by collecting a drilled sample at Quela on Sol 1464 (Sept. 18). The skyline sweeps from west on the left to south-southwest on the right, with the rover's mast at northeast. The rover's location when it recorded this scene was where it ended a drive on Sol 1455, mapped at http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=8029. The view does not include the rover's arm nor the MAHLI camera itself, except in the miniature scene reflected upside down in the parabolic mirror at the top of the mast. That mirror is part of Curiosity's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument. MAHLI appears in the center of the mirror. Wrist motions and turret rotations on the arm allowed MAHLI to acquire the mosaic's component images. The arm was positioned out of the shot in the images, or portions of images, that were used in this mosaic. This process was used previously in acquiring and assembling Curiosity self-portraits taken at other sample-collection sites, including "Rocknest" (PIA16468), "Windjana" (PIA18390"), "Buckskin" (PIA19808) and "Gobabeb" (PIA20316). For scale, the rover's wheels are 20 inches (50 centimeters) in diameter and about 16 inches (40 centimeters) wide. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20844

This self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the "Big Sky" site, where its drill collected the mission's fifth taste of Mount Sharp. The scene combines dozens of images taken during the 1,126th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work during Mars (Oct. 6, 2015, PDT), by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the rover's robotic arm. The rock drilled at this site is sandstone in the Stimson geological unit inside Gale Crater. The location is on cross-bedded sandstone in which the cross bedding is more evident in views from when the rover was approaching the area, such as PIA19818. The view is centered toward the west-northwest. It does not include the rover's robotic arm, though the shadow of the arm is visible on the ground. Wrist motions and turret rotations on the arm allowed MAHLI to acquire the mosaic's component images. The arm was positioned out of the shot in the images, or portions of images, that were used in this mosaic. This process was used previously in acquiring and assembling Curiosity self-portraits taken at sample-collection sites "Rocknest" (PIA16468), "John Klein" (PIA16937) and "Windjana" (PIA18390). This portrait of the rover was designed to show the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument atop the rover appearing level. This causes the horizon to appear to tilt toward the left, but in reality it is fairly flat. For scale, the rover's wheels are 20 inches (50 centimeters) in diameter and about 16 inches (40 centimeters) wide. The drilled hole in the rock, appearing grey near the lower left corner of the image, is 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) in diameter. MAHLI was built by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19920

This self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle on Vera Rubin Ridge, which it's been investigating for the past several months. Directly behind the rover is the start of a clay-rich slope scientists are eager to begin exploring. In the coming week, Curiosity will begin to climb this slope. North is on the left and west is on the right, with Gale Crater's rim on the horizon of both edges. Poking up just behind Curiosity's mast is Mount Sharp, photobombing the robot's selfie. Curiosity landed on Mars five years ago with the intention of studying lower Mount Sharp, where it will remain for all of its time on Mars. The mountain's base provides access to layers formed over millions of years. These layers formed in the presence of water -- likely due to a lake or lakes that sat at the bottom of the mountain, which sits inside of Gale Crater. This mosaic was assembled from dozens of images taken by Curiosity's Mars Hands Lens Imager (MAHLI). They were all taken on Jan. 23, 2018, during Sol 1943. The view does not include the rover's arm nor the MAHLI camera itself, except in the miniature scene reflected upside down in the parabolic mirror at the top of the mast. That mirror is part of Curiosity's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument. MAHLI appears in the center of the mirror. Wrist motions and turret rotations on the arm allowed MAHLI to acquire the mosaic's component images. The arm was positioned out of the shot in the images, or portions of images, that were used in this mosaic. A full-resolution image is available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22207

This false-color image demonstrates how use of special filters available on the Mast Camera (Mastcam) of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover can reveal the presence of certain minerals in target rocks. It is a composite of images taken through three "science" filters chosen for making hematite, an iron-oxide mineral, stand out as exaggerated purple. This target rock, called "Christmas Cove," lies in an area on Mars' "Vera Rubin Ridge" where Mastcam reconnaissance imaging (see PIA22065) with science filters suggested a patchy distribution of exposed hematite. Bright lines within the rocks are fractures filled with calcium sulfate minerals. Christmas Cove did not appear to contain much hematite until the rover team conducted an experiment on this target: Curiosity's wire-bristled brush, the Dust Removal Tool, scrubbed the rock, and a close-up with the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) confirmed the brushing. The brushed area is about is about 2.5 inches (6 centimeters) across. The next day -- Sept. 17, 2017, on the mission's Sol 1819 -- this observation with Mastcam and others with the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam showed a strong hematite presence that had been subdued beneath the dust. The team is continuing to explore whether the patchiness in the reconnaissance imaging may result more from variations in the amount of dust cover rather than from variations in hematite content. Curiosity's Mastcam combines two cameras: one with a telephoto lens and the other with a wider-angle lens. Each camera has a filter wheel that can be rotated in front of the lens for a choice of eight different filters. One filter for each camera is clear to all visible light, for regular full-color photos, and another is specifically for viewing the Sun. Some of the other filters were selected to admit wavelengths of light that are useful for identifying iron minerals. Each of the filters used for this image admits light from a narrow band of wavelengths, extending to only about 5 nanometers longer or shorter than the filter's central wavelength. Three observations are combined for this image, each through one of the filters centered at 751 nanometers (in the near-infrared part of the spectrum just beyond red light), 527 nanometers (green) and 445 nanometers (blue). Usual color photographs from digital cameras -- such as a Mastcam one of this same place (see PIA22067) -- also combine information from red, green and blue filtering, but the filters are in a microscopic grid in a "Bayer" filter array situated directly over the detector behind the lens, with wider bands of wavelengths. Mastcam's narrow-band filters used for this view help to increase spectral contrast, making blues bluer and reds redder, particularly with the processing used to boost contrast in each of the component images of this composite. Fine-grained hematite preferentially absorbs sunlight around in the green portion of the spectrum around 527 nanometers. That gives it the purple look from a combination of red and blue light reflected by the hematite and reaching the camera through the other two filters. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22066