Eagle (Mars crater)
| Mars Crater Eagle (Mars Crater) | ||
|---|---|---|
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| position | 1 ° 57 ′ S , 5 ° 32 ′ W | |
| history | ||
| discovery | Opportunity | |
Eagle is an impact crater on Mars . It is 22 meters long, 88 cm deep and is located on the Meridiani Planum plateau within the MC-19 Margaritifer Sinus - Gradfeld . The Mars rover Opportunity landed in this crater in 2004. Measurement results from Opportunity confirmed the scientists' assumption that Meridani Planum was once the bottom of an ocean .
Surname
The name of the Eagle Crater has three origins:
- To honor the first manned spacecraft (space mission Apollo 11 , . Engl also Eagle ) that landed on the moon.
- In honor of the United States of America , the emblem of the bald eagle (Engl. Bald Eagle is) and what the Opportunity mission operate.
- Eagle is also a term from golf . A golfer sinks the golf ball into the hole with certain strokes under par . This is to symbolize the landing, which was called hole-in-one .
Discoveries in the crater
The scientists on the Opportunity Mission were delighted with the frequency of the rock outcrops in the crater. The bottom of the crater is very interesting from a scientific point of view because it consists of a mixture of coarse gray grains and fine reddish grains. More detailed investigations into the rock layers, which were roughly as thick as a finger, confirmed the assumption that Meridiani Planum must once have been a weakly acidic and salty ocean. Findings about this area were confirmed three months later when Opportunity visited the much larger Endurance crater east of Eagle, and further data was collected on the history of the area.
See also
Web links
- Official site of the Mars rover (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ NASA Facts: Mars Exploration Rover (PDF), NASA / JPL . October 24, 2004. Retrieved March 26, 2009.
- ^ Eagle (Mars crater) in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature of the IAU (WGPSN) / USGS
- ^ Reports Detail Rover Discoveries of Wet Martian History . JPL , December 2, 2004