Enjoy the beautiful scenery aboard the Curiosity spacecraft.
Although the persistent Mars spacecraft has been in the spotlight lately, we must not forget that there are other American Mars explorers on the Red Planet. about curiosity. A Mars robot that has been researching Mars for almost ten years. And now this thief made himself heard again. Because Curiosity takes amazingly beautiful photos.
More about the Curiosity mission
Curiosity landed at Gale Crater in August 2012; The basin is 154 km wide, formed by ancient collisions. Explorers have revealed many of the secrets of this hole in recent years. For example, Curiosity has found strong indications that craters were filled with water in the past. Mount Sharp is located in the heart of the crater. The mountain is made of sedimentary deposits and is actually a time capsule: each layer tells something about a different period in the history of Mars. Curiosity is currently conducting a thorough investigation of this mountain. Hopefully, this will teach us a lot about the Red Planet’s past.
Each time after Curiosity traveled a bit, it took a picture of its surroundings. In mid-November, the mission team again ordered Curiosity to take some photos. However, the researchers were amazed by the images produced by the rover. To make it easier to send these images to Earth, Curiosity saves them in a low-quality compressed format. But when the rover team spotted the view from Curiosity, it was too beautiful to capture with the highest quality navigation camera available.
Amazing shot
The resulting image consists of several black and white images taken at 08.30 and 22.15 local time. These two distinct periods of the day provide contrasting lighting conditions that reveal various details of the landscape. The black and white photos can be seen below.
The Mars Curiosity rover uses a black-and-white navigation camera to capture its sights twice a day. In this image, the surrounding area can be seen at 8:30 am local Martian time. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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The Mars Curiosity rover uses a black-and-white navigation camera to capture its sights twice a day. In this image, the surrounding area can be seen at 4:10 p.m. local Martian time. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Then the researchers added blue, orange, and green. This results in the beautiful image below, with the morning element in blue, the afternoon element in orange, and a mixture of the two rendered in shades of green.
Amazing view of the Mars rover Curiosity. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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The image shows a beautiful view of the Mars rover Curiosity. In the center of the image you can see the steep slope of Mount Sharp. Explorers have been climbing this five kilometer high mountain since 2014. In the distance to the right you see hills. Curiosity spotted here last July. The huge “sandfield” known as the “Furfi Sand” stretches from 400 to 800 meters. At the far right of the image is the steep “Mount Rafael Navarro,” named after a Curiosity scientist who died earlier this year. Behind him was the peak of Mount Sharp. This is slightly higher than the area Curiosity is currently exploring. The far edge of Gale Crater is about 2.3 kilometers long and can be seen on the horizon from about 30 to 40 kilometers away.
While we can enjoy the beautiful view of Curiosity for a while, the rover has to move fast again. Ultimately, the researchers hope the rover will provide more information about how warm, humid (and possibly habitable) Mars turned into a dry, cold (and possibly uninhabitable) planet.
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