Sols 2645-2646: A Strange Trough on Western Butte

While descending from Western Butte, Curiosity has stopped to investigate a strange trough along the way. In the images from orbit, it looks like someone drew a thick straight line with a dark felt marker on the southeastern side of the butte. From the ground, it looks like a shallow ditch filled with dark sand. We don’t know what created this feature, or why it happens to be right here, so it’s worth stopping for a closer look.

Over the weekend (Sols 2642-2644), Curiosity drove downhill and parked at the top of the trough, which we named “Balgy.” The main event in today’s plan (Sols 2645-2646) is a large Mastcam stereo mosaic covering both sides of Balgy Trough. We’ll also take a smaller Mastcam stereo mosaic of laminated rocks nearby called “Baljaffray,” and grab a quick set of MAHLI and APXS observations on the bedrock target “Kennedys Pass.” After that, Curiosity will finish descending from Western Butte and will head south.