Opportunity has been studying the so-called "bathtub ring," a light band of rock that appears to circle Victoria Crater partway below the surface.The rover will complete studies after grinding a hole into the rock surface with the rock abrasion tool and acquire a final set of observations that include measurements with the Moessbauer spectrometer.
Two spectrometers on exist on Opportunity and provide different kinds of information. The alpha-particle X-ray spectrometer is a general- purpose spectrometer that helps determine the chemical composition of the rocks and the Moessbauer spectrometer is specifically designed to study iron-bearing minerals (abundant on Mars and give the planet its red-orange color).
Oct. 11, 2007, Opportunity is scheduled to take a series of nine microscopic images within a minute or two at exactly the same spot. By adding the pixels, engineers can reduce the amount of "noise" within the image to reveal details and fine texture that would otherwise be obscured.
http://www.marstoday.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=25946
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