NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover in the foothills of Mount Sharp
The NASA Mars Curiosity Rover has offered a “picture postcard” image of Mars. After completing what NASA said was a “major software update” in April, the Curiosity Mars rover took a last look at “Marker Band Valley” before leaving it behind, but not before capturing the scene on film.
NASA explained, however, that this stunning image is not a natural photograph, but an “artistic interpretation” of the landscape, with color added over two black-and-white panoramas captured by Curiosity’s navigation cameras. The views were taken on April 8 at 9:20 a.m. and 3:40 p.m. local Mars time, providing dramatically different lighting that, when combined, makes details in the scene stand out. Blue was added to parts of the postcard captured in the morning and yellow to parts taken in the afternoon.
The image was taken while the Curiosity Rover stood in the foothills of Mount Sharp, which stands 3 miles (5 kilometers) high within Gale Crater, where the rover has been exploring since landing in 2012. In the distance beyond its tracks is Marker Band Valley, a winding area in the “sulfate-bearing region” within which the rover discovered unexpected signs of an ancient lake. Farther below (at center and just to the right) are two hills – “Bolívar” and “Deepdale” – that Curiosity drove between while exploring “Paraitepuy Pass.”
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“Anyone who’s been to a national park knows the scene looks different in the morning than it does in the afternoon,” said Curiosity engineer Doug Ellison of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, who planned and processed the images. “Capturing two times of day provides dark shadows because the lighting is coming in from the left and the right, like you might have on a stage – but instead of stage lights, we’re relying on the Sun.”
Adding to the depth of the shadows is the fact that it was winter – a period of lower airborne dust – at Curiosity’s location when the images were taken. “Mars’ shadows get sharper and deeper when there’s low dust and softer when there’s lots of dust,” Ellison added.
