At 00:57:42 UTC the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) captured this very close detail of a rock just partially cleaned by Curiosity’s rotating wire brush (see https://www.facebook.com/PianetaMarte.MdM/photos/a.1625578140858706/2506023692814142/).
The photo was taken from a distance of only 3.68 cm with a definition of 0.020 mm/pixel, thus covering an area of 3.19 cm X 2.37 cm.
Apart from the obvious concentric circular scratches, due to the abrasive action of the rotating wire brush of Curiosity, you can observe a curious texture of the rock with fine interwoven filaments rather than grains!
I can not tell if this appearance was caused by the “material” that previously adhered to the rock or the nature of the rock itself. I only hope that the physicochemical nature of these very particular twists will be analyzed, maybe with the ChemCam laser; I have the impression that we could get some very interesting results!
See for yourself this photo in detail by enlarging it properly, taking into account that each pixel corresponds to only 20 microns.
To show colors more similar to what the human eye would see, I subjected the image to white balance and a slight increase in microcontrast and color saturation.
Original image: https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/raw_images/713859/ https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/02574/mhli/2574MH0001840020903904C00_DXXX.jpg
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