Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufm.u11b0030m&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #U11B-0030
Other
0305 Aerosols And Particles (0345, 4801, 4906), 3672 Planetary Mineralogy And Petrology (5410), 5415 Erosion And Weathering, 5440 Magnetic Fields And Magnetism, 5470 Surface Materials And Properties
Scientific paper
Phoenix carries as part of its scientific payload a series of magnetic properties experiments designed to utilize onboard instruments for the investigation of airborne dust, air-fall samples stirred by the retro-rockets of the lander, and sampled surface and sub-surface material from the northern plains of Mars. One of the aims of these experiments on Phoenix is to investigate any possible differences between airborne dust and soils found on the northern plains from similar samples in the equatorial region of Mars. The magnetic properties experiments are designed to control the pattern of dust attracted to or accumulated on the surfaces to enable interpretation of these patterns in terms of certain magnetic properties of the dust forming the patterns. The Surface Stereo Imager (SSI) provides multi-spectral information about dust accumulated on three iSweep targets on the lander instrument deck. The iSweeps utilize built in permanent magnets and 6 different background colors for the dust compared to only 1 for the MER sweep magnet. Simultaneously these iSweep targets are used as in-situ radiometric calibration targets for the SSI. The visible/near-infrared spectra acquired so far are similar to typical Martian dust and soil spectra. Because of the multiple background colors of the iSweeps the effect of the translucence of thin dust layers can be estimated. High resolution images (4 micrometers/px) acquired by the Optical Microscope (OM) showed subtle differences between different soil samples in particle size distribution, color and morphology. Most samples contain (typically 50 micrometer) large, subrounded particles that are substantially magnetic. The colors of these particles range from red, brown to (almost) black. Based on results from the Mars Exploration Rovers, these dark particles are believed to be enriched in magnetite. Occasionally, also very bright, whitish particles were found on the magnet substrates, likely held by cohesion forces to the magnet surface and/or to other (magnetic) particles.
Britt Dan
Drube L.
Ellehoj M.
Falkenberg T. V.
Faurschou Hviid S.
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