(meteorobs) RE: Meteor picture from Mars?

Fri Jun 10 19:13:40 EDT 2005

In message <3E7E6EC0717A6345BB7E8EE07DB4F1E7027314 at fscw2k07.fscwan.lcl>,
Bias, Peter V <pbias at flsouthern.edu> writes
>
>Still, it looks odd to me.  Any insight?
>
>    Pete Bias

I thought the same, so dig some digging. I don't understand why the
meteor appears odd in the other respects that you mention either, but I
think I know why the meteor appears to abruptly burn out. As always,
corrections would be welcomed. 

I believe the published picture is a composite of two images from two
different cameras on Spirit. The first image is a narrow vertical strip
referred to as a sub-frame EDR taken by the left Pancam. This happened
to have been taken with a 903nm filter in the optical path. This image
has been superimposed on a full field image from one of Spirit's Navcams
to give the meteor path context. The two images were taken a slightly
different times and only the single partial frame from the Pancam shows
the meteor. The Pancam image includes the start of the meteor's path,
but the meteor exits the narrow image's right side prior to burning out.

You can see the original images here:

All Spirit Pancam images from sol 063.

http://origin.mars5.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/spirit_p063.html

Including the one with the meteor.

http://origin.mars5.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p/063/2P131930937ESF1300P
2733L5M1.HTML

or in shorter form.

http://tinyurl.com/9jrkp

This is the image showing the meteor and is the 'left Panoramic Camera
Non-linearized Sub-frame EDR acquired on Sol 63 of Spirit's mission to
Gusev Crater at approximately 04:48:50 Mars local solar time, camera
commanded to use Filter 5 (903 nm)'. 

This image has been superimposed on one of the Spirit navcam images from
sol 63.

http://origin.mars5.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/spirit_n063.html