Eagle Crater
Region	Meridiani Planum
Coordinates	1. Meridiani Planum is a plain located 2 degrees south of Mars ' equator (centered at) in the westernmost portion of Terra Meridiani. The "geography" of Mars, also known as areography, entails the delineation and characterization of regions on Mars. 94° S, 354. 47° E
Diameter	Approx. Geometry, a diameter of a Circle is any straight Line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose Endpoints are on the 30 m
Depth	Approx. The depth of any crater in a solid Planet or moon - whether it is an Impact crater, a Volcanic crater, or a Subsidence crater - may 5 m
Discoverer	Opportunity rover
Eponym	See list below
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This article is about the crater on Mars. MER-B ( Mars Exploration Rover - B) known as Opportunity, is the second of the two rovers of NASA 's Mars Exploration For other uses, see Eagle (disambiguation).

Eagle Crater is the small impact crater in which the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity found itself after landing on Mars in 2004. In the broadest sense the term impact crater can be applied to any depression natural or manmade resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with larger body NASA 's Mars Exploration Rover ( MER) Mission is an ongoing robotic mission of exploring Mars, that began in 2003 with the sending of MER-B ( Mars Exploration Rover - B) known as Opportunity, is the second of the two rovers of NASA 's Mars Exploration "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again "

The crater is located on Meridiani Planum. Meridiani Planum is a plain located 2 degrees south of Mars ' equator (centered at) in the westernmost portion of Terra Meridiani. Scientists are delighted that the rover landed there, as the crater contains rocky outcroppings that helped prove that Meridiani was once an ocean floor. MER-B ( Mars Exploration Rover - B) known as Opportunity, is the second of the two rovers of NASA 's Mars Exploration "Ocean Floor" redirects here For the 2001 song by Audio Adrenaline, see Lift (Audio Adrenaline album.

Name

HiRISE image of Eagle crater. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera is a camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The dot in the middle of the crater is the lander.

The name is a triple reference: in honor of the first manned spacecraft to land on the Moon in 1969; in honor of the launching country, the United States, whose symbol is an eagle; and in reference to the golf term eagle, referring to sinking a ball two strokes under par. Year 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The third reference extended the golf metaphor begun with a description of landing in Eagle crater as "a hole in one. "

Discoveries in the crater

Panorama showing targets around Eagle Crater

Mission scientists were intrigued by the abundance of rock outcrops dispersed throughout the crater, as well as the crater's soil, which appeared to be a mixture of coarse gray grains and fine reddish grains. Upon closer, in-situ examination of the outcrops, whose layers are no thicker then a finger, it was confirmed that Meridiani Planum was once the location of an ancient, somewhat acidic and salty sea, though much more information on the history of this area would start being collected more than 3 months later, when Opportunity visited the much larger Endurance crater to the east. Endurance is an Impact crater on Mars that was visited by the Opportunity rover from May until December 2004. The hematite observed from orbit, whose presence decided the landing site in the first place, was found to be encased in millions of tiny hematite spherules, nicknamed "blueberries", by mission scientists, due to their shape, although they are actually much smaller than real blueberries. Hematite, also spelt hæmatite, is the Mineral form of Iron(III oxide (Fe2O3 one of several Iron oxides Martian spherules (also known as blueberries due to their blue hue in false-color images released by NASA are the abundant spherical hematite inclusions discovered by the Blueberries are Flowering plants in the genus Vaccinium, sect These concretions were found soon to be covering not just the outcrops in Eagle crater, but covered the plains beyond as well. The origin of the blueberries was quickly discovered. They appeared to be being eroded out of the outcrops by wind. Images from the rover's microscope discovered blueberries at several stages of this process, with most completely separated, but some still attached by a thin "stalk".

Rocks and outcrops in the crater

Approximate true color photo of Last Chance.

See also: List of rocks on Mars

A number of rocks and outcrops were investigated with Opportunity's Instrument Deployment Device (IDD). This is a list of named rocks on Mars alphabetically by mission They were given informal names by mission scientists. These include:

• Berry Bowl, an outcrop rich in Martian spherules
• Carousel, a layered outcrop most likely to have been formed in a wet environment
• Cookies 'N' Cream, a dark soil target near Carousel
• El Capitan, another layered outcrop
• Last Chance, another layered outcrop

These can be seen in context in the high resolution version of the panorama above. El Capitan is a layered rock outcrop found on Mars by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity in February 2004 Last Chance is a layered rock outcrop found on Mars by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity in March 2004

See also

Spherules still in their originating strata

• List of craters on Mars
• Geography of Mars

Other craters visited by Opportunity

• Fram Crater
• Endurance Crater
• Argo Crater
• Vostok Crater
• Erebus Crater
• Beagle Crater
• Emma Dean Crater
• Victoria Crater

External links

• Official Mars Rovers website