NASA’s Mars rover Spirit churned up the largest amount of bright material on a recent drive.

Spirit, currently rolling toward a destination dubbed McCool Hill in Mars’ Gusev Crater, managed to capture the bright soil with its panoramic camera after its wheels churned up the stuff.

The find came on March 22, 2006 – but released Tuesday – while Spirit was headed towards McCool Hill on its 788^th Martian day of exploration.

Mission scientists dubbed the small patch of material “Tyrone,” which appeared in images similar to previous bright patches – called “Arad” and “Paso Robles” found earlier in Spirit’s mission. Those earlier patches were found by Spirit to have a salty chemistry dominated by iron-bearing sulfates.

Spirit used its mast-mounted Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) instrument to determine the composition of “Tyrone” and compare it to the earlier patches.

But the new bright soil points hint that such deposits may be more widely present along the flanks and valley floors near the Columbia Hills chain – which includes McCool – in Gusev crater. Because the salts could be easily mobilized and concentrated in liquid solution, they may also hold clues to Mars’ past water environment.

• Special Report: Complete Coverage of Spirit and Opportunity’s Mission to Mars

-- Tariq Malik

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell