Because the rover Opportunity found spherical granules around its landing site on Mars, researchers put it to work digging a trench to see if they were also beneath the surface. Microscopic imager pictures now show that the granules, millimeters in size and dubbed "blueberries," also are embedded in the walls of the trench. And the images show the blueberries are polished and shiny. "We're not sure what is going on here, but there is some process happening at the subsurface, said Mars rover science team member Albert Yen at a press conference at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena today (Feb. 19). Science team leader Steven Squyres, Cornell professor of astronomy, told the press briefing that he expects the spherical granules to be common over most of the Martian surface. But, he said, "We don't know what their pedigree is." To find out, Opportunity is about to embark on a trip to what he called "a blueberry patch," a "wonderful finely layered laminated bedrock" dubbed El Capitan, where it's known there are many of the granules. The exposed bedrock has a gently sloping lower portion and a much steeper upper portion, overhanging in places. The aim is, Squyres said, to "zero in on a place where there are lots of those spherical granules and look in detail with the microscopic imager." The rover is exploring a crater in an area of Mars called Meridiani Planum.
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