View allAll Photos Tagged MarsReconnaissanceOrbiter
Full data JP2 processed in Photoshop CC
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Acquisition date
04 August 2024
Local Mars time
14:17
Latitude (centered)
41.984°
Longitude (East)
62.507°
Spacecraft altitude
298.8 km (185.7 miles)
Original image scale range
59.8 cm/pixel (with 2 x 2 binning) so objects ~179 cm across are resolved
Source : www.uahirise.org/ESP_084488_2225
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter PR image of dust devil tracks among rocks on Mars, set next to a dune field.
False color infrared image of layered deposits in southwestern Candor Chasma, a side canyon in the central Valles Marineris. These layered deposits, which are several kilometers thick in places, are finely layered and have an unclear origin. They may have been deposited by volcanic airfall, wind, or deep lakes once filling the canyon. The layering here is heavily faulted and distorted, suggesting that tectonic activity has twisted the rocks. Fault analysis suggests that most faults (including the large dark fault running top-bottom at center right) parallel the canyon walls, implying that the faults are related to the formation of the canyon.
This image was created using the CRISM imaging spectrometer. Each pixel of a CRISM image contains a 500 point spectrum, from which a color can be reconstructed. This reconstructed color was overlaid on a higher-resolution image taken with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Context Camera (CTX), which simultaneously took a photo while CRISM was collecting data. This image covers the infrared spectrum between between 800 nm and 2000 nm, where mineral colors that are difficult to distinguish in visible light become much easier to tell apart.
This image was taken on December 2, 2006. It uses CRISM observation HRL000033B7 and CTX observation CTX_P02_001641_1734_XI_06S075W
Image Credit: NASA / JPL / JHUAPL / MSSS / Justin Cowart
White balanced visible color of layered deposits in southwestern Candor Chasma, a side canyon in the central Valles Marineris. These layered deposits, which are several kilometers thick in places, are finely layered and have an unclear origin. They may have been deposited by volcanic airfall, wind, or deep lakes once filling the canyon. The layering here is heavily faulted and distorted, suggesting that tectonic activity has twisted the rocks. Fault analysis suggests that most faults (including the large dark fault running top-bottom at center right) parallel the canyon walls, implying that the faults are related to the formation of the canyon.
This image was created using the CRISM imaging spectrometer. Each pixel of a CRISM image contains a 500 point spectrum, from which a color can be reconstructed. This reconstructed color was overlaid on a higher-resolution image taken with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Context Camera (CTX), which simultaneously took a photo while CRISM was collecting data. The white balancing applied to the image removes the color-cast caused by dust filtering through the Martian atmosphere. This makes the color closer to what would be observed by a person standing under terrestrial illumination conditions.
This image was taken on December 2, 2006. It uses CRISM observation HRL000033B7 and CTX observation CTX_P02_001641_1734_XI_06S075W
Image Credit: NASA / JPL / JHUAPL / MSSS / Justin Cowart
False color infrared image of the Columbia Hills in Gusev Crater. This region was explored by the Spirit rover between 2004 to 2010. The mission landing site was chosen with the expectation that the flat terrain of Gusev Crater were sediments deposited in a lake fed by Ma'adim Vallis, a large canyon system that empties into Gusev. However, it became clear soon after landing that the crater is filled by a vast lava plain. Although lake sediments are probably present in Gusev, they are buried by these lava flows. A greater of diversity of rocks were seen in the Columbia Hills, many of which appeared to be sedimentary and volcaniclastic rocks. This has led some researchers to suggest that the Columbia Hills represent an exposure of lakebed sediments that were folded towards the surface along a thrust fault (one of several in Gusev).
Images of rocks in the visible range of the spectrum (380-780 nm) usually show very small changes in color. However, rocks are much more colorful in the 1000 nm to 2600 nm range due to the presence of strong absorption features related to common transition metals (such as iron) in mineral crystals. These differences help highlight the difference between the relatively bland rocks of the Gusev lava plains and the more compositionally diverse rocks exposed in the Columbia Hills.
This false color was created using the CRISM imaging spectrometer. Each pixel of a CRISM image contains a 500 point spectrum, from which a color can be reconstructed. This reconstructed color was overlaid on a higher-resolution image taken with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Context Camera (CTX), which simultaneously took a photo while CRISM was collecting data.
This image wast taken on December 12, 2006. It uses CRISM observation FRT000035d0 and CTX observation P02_001777_1653_XI_14S184W.
Image Credit: NASA / JPL / JHUAPL / MSSS / Justin Cowart
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of fans (probably caused by geysers of some type of material) in rough terrain on Mars.
This final traverse map for NASA's Opportunity rover shows where the rover was located within Perseverance Valley on June 10, 2018, the last date it made contact with its engineering team. Visible in this map is a yellow traverse route beginning at Opportunity's landing site, Eagle Crater, and ranging 28.06 miles (45.16 kilometers) to its final resting spot on the rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover was descending down into the crater in Perseverance Valley when the dust storm ended its mission. This map is made from several images taken by the Context Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Those images are: B02_010486_1779_XN_02S005W, P15_006847_1770_XN_03S005W, and P13_006135_1789_XN_01S005W.
My job is to take pictures of Mars. How cool is that? :) I am a member of the science operations team for the Context Camera (CTX) aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which just celebrated its 5th anniversary at Mars on 10 March.
This pair of CTX images shows an area of Mars called Buvinda Vallis, a valley adjacent to the volcano Hecates Tholus at ~32°N, 207°W. In an attempt to get stereo (3D) coverage of the area, we shot the valley in February 2009. When we came back less than a month later to acquire the second image in the stereopair, a local dust storm obscured part of the image. Atmospheric dust tends to make CTX images look pretty bad (noisy). However, in this case, what we captured were some spectacular dust clouds in the southern portion of the image. The small white speck to the east of the crater near the center of the image is a dust devil.
Each image is 30 km wide. North is slightly to the upper right and illumination is from the left. Taken during autumn in the martian northern hemisphere.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems, post-processing by Tanya Harrison.
This compilation, spanning Mariner 4 to HiRISE, shows each image at full-resolution. Beginning with Viking 1 and ending with our HiRISE image, this animation documents the historic imaging of a particular site on another world.
Finally, in 2017, HiRISE acquired the highest resolution image of this location to date at 50 centimeters per pixel. When seen at this unprecedented scale, we can discern a crater floor strewn with small rocky deposits, boulders several meters across, and wind-blown deposits in the floors of small craters and depressions. This compilation of Mars images spanning over 50 years gives us a visual appreciation of the evolution of orbital Mars imaging over a single site.
One of the exciting opportunities provided by having spacecraft in Mars orbit for more than a decade is the opportunity to identify new impact craters that have formed over the past few years. Use of a combination of THEMIS, CTX, MOC, and HiRISE images has allowed several dozen new craters to be found.
This is one such crater, which is located at 3.67oN, 53.43oE, to the west of the Syrtis Major volcanics
Russell Crater Dunes and Gullies
Full data JP2 Processed in Photoshop CC [Centre Crop]
Acquisition date
28 July 2024
Local Mars time
14:43
Latitude (centered)
-54.272°
Longitude (East)
12.909°
Spacecraft altitude
252.5 km (156.9 miles)
Original image scale range
50.5 cm/pixel (with 2 x 2 binning) so objects ~152 cm across are resolved
Full data JP2 processed in Photoshop CC {Centre Crop]
Acquisition date
01 August 2024
Local Mars time
14:31
Latitude (centered)
-7.185°
Longitude (East)
332.271°
Spacecraft altitude
268.6 km (167.0 miles)
Original image scale range
54.1 cm/pixel (with 2 x 2 binning) so objects ~162 cm across are resolved
Original data credit : NASA JPL-Caltech UofArizona
Source : www.uahirise.org/ESP_084452_1725
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a lava cone with craters (from meteorite strikes) in Noctis Fossae.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of deposited ice and loss in a crater in Utopia Basin on Mars. Color/processing variant.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of the CNSA's Zhurong rover on Mars. This image, annotated by NASA, shows it's path so far, as well as the landing craft.
Dune Monitoring in Crater East of Toro Crater
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Acquisition date
31 July 2024
Local Mars time
14:25
Latitude (centered)
17.125°
Longitude (East)
73.055°
Spacecraft altitude
278.1 km (172.8 miles)
Original image scale range
from 27.9 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) to 55.8 cm/pixel (with 2 x 2 binning)
Original data credit : NASA
JPL-Caltech UofArizona
Source : www.uahirise.org/ESP_084435_1975
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of ridges in the Tempe Terra region of Mars. Context image.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of sand dunes (where "sand" means small, granule of some type) in Nectaris Montes.
North Polar Dunes
Acquisition date
29 July 2023
Local Mars time
13:59
Latitude (centered)
83.065°
Longitude (East)
221.437°
Spacecraft altitude
317.7 km (197.4 miles)
Original image scale range
63.6 cm/pixel (with 2 x 2 binning) so objects ~191 cm across are resolved
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a terraced crater on Mars. Terraced craters can be formed when there are layers of material with different strengths where the asteroid strikes a planet.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter PR image of layers of sediments on Mars.
Original caption: The layered sedimentary deposits inside the giant canyons of Mars have puzzled scientists for decades. These light toned deposits have fine, horizontal laminations that are unlike the rugged rim rock of the Valles Marineris as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter (MRO).
Various ideas for the origin of the layered sediments have suggested lake deposits, wind blown dust and sand, or volcanic materials that erupted after the canyon was formed, and possibly filled with water.
One particular layered deposit, called Ceti Mensa, attracted attention because its deep red color in images collected by the Viking Orbiter mission during the 1970s. Located in west Candor Chasma in the north of the Valles Marineris, Ceti Mensa is an undulating plateau that rises 3 kilometers above the canyon floor and is bounded by steep scarps up to 1.5 kilometers in height. Deep red hues are on the west-facing scarp in particular. The red tint may be due to the presence of crystalline ferric oxide, suggesting that the material may have been exposed to heat or water, or both.
Spectral measurements by the Mars Express OMEGA and MRO CRISM instruments confirm the presence of hydrated sulfate salts, such as gypsum and kieserite . These minerals are important for two reasons. On Earth, they typically form in wet environments, suggesting that the deposits in Ceti Mensa may have formed under water. On Mars, these deposits could be valuable to future Martian colonists as fertilizer for growing crops.
In a view of the colorful west-facing scarp of Ceti Mensa, we see the interior layers of the deposit, giving us a window into the past history of the sediments as they accumulated over time. We also see layers that were previously too small to view, and a surface that is thoroughly fractured, eroded into knobs, and partially covered by young dark sand dunes.
This is a stereo pair with ESP_051986_1750.
The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Image Addition Date:
2017-10-23
"Western Mawrth Vallis Phyllosilicates"
3d Model created in Blender - Orthoimage combined with 3d model in 3ds Max
Acquisition date
29 April 2008
Local Mars time
15:07
Latitude (centered)
24.418°
Longitude (East)
338.875°
Spacecraft altitude
287.1 km (178.4 miles)
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter PR image of scaly-looking surface features on Mars.
Original caption: This intriguing surface texture is the result of rock interacting with water, as observed by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The rock was then eroded and later exposed to the surface. The pinkish, almost dragon-like scaled texture represents Martian bedrock that has specifically altered into a clay-bearing rock.
The nature of the water responsible for the alteration, and how it interacted with the rock to form the clay remains poorly understood. Not surprisingly, the study of such altered rocks on Mars is an area of active investigation by the Mars science community. Understanding such interactions, and how they happened, help scientists to understand the past climate on Mars, and if the red planet ever harbored life.
Recent studies indicate that the early Martian climate may not have been as warm, wet, and Earth-like, as previously suggested. This is not a problem for finding life on Mars as one might think. Ongoing studies of dry and cold environments on Earth shows that life finds ways to adapt to such extremes. Such work provides hope for finding evidence for life on other planets, like Mars, someday.
The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 25.3 centimeters (.99 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning); objects on the order of 76 centimeters (29.9 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.
The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a new (for undefined values of "new") crater on Mars. Context image for the closer image.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of mounds on Mars' north polar region, seen obliquely given MRO's orbit and the extreme north latitudes of the scene.
Mars' Victoria crater viewed from orbit by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Victoria is about a half mile across. The box on the left rim indicates the location of the Opportunity Mars Exploration Rover.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover can be seen in this image taken from space on May 31, 2019, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). In the image, Curiosity appears as a bluish speck.
The image shows Curiosity at a location called “Woodland Bay.” It’s just one of many stops the rover has made in an area referred to as the “clay-bearing unit” on the side of 5 km-high Mount Sharp within Gale Crater. For a closer look at this clay-bearing unit, see the image below, which was taken by the rover on Sol 2440 (June 18th, 2019) at a place called “Teal Ridge”.
Look carefully at the inset on the main image, and you can make out what is likely Curiosity's “head,” technically known as the remote sensing mast. A bright spot appears in the upper-left corner of the rover.
A cliff along the edge of Ganges Chasma, part of the vast Valles Marineris canyon of Mars. The area shown is a kilometer or two across. Watch that last step: this gorge is way deeper than the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
Sent by: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter | From: Mars | Released: December, 2008 | Credit: NASA/JPL/UA
Added to www.ridingwithrobots.org Dec 19, 2008.
Zoom of the box in the previous image in this set, showing the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity (center). Note the rover tracks going left and up from the rover's location.
Cropped from photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08813
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of fans on Mars caused by erupting carbon dioxide as it warms up in the local spring.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of deposited ice and loss in a crater in Utopia Basin on Mars.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image used to support the theory of running water (albeit very salty running water) on Mars.
Original caption from main story: New findings from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars.
Using an imaging spectrometer on MRO, researchers detected signatures of hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on the Red Planet. These darkish streaks appear to ebb and flow over time. They darken and appear to flow down steep slopes during warm seasons, and then fade in cooler seasons. They appear in several locations on Mars when temperatures are above minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23 Celsius), and disappear at colder times.
“Our quest on Mars has been to ‘follow the water,’ in our search for life in the universe, and now we have convincing science that validates what we’ve long suspected,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This is a significant development, as it appears to confirm that water -- albeit briny -- is flowing today on the surface of Mars.”
These downhill flows, known as recurring slope lineae (RSL), often have been described as possibly related to liquid water. The new findings of hydrated salts on the slopes point to what that relationship may be to these dark features. The hydrated salts would lower the freezing point of a liquid brine, just as salt on roads here on Earth causes ice and snow to melt more rapidly. Scientists say it’s likely a shallow subsurface flow, with enough water wicking to the surface to explain the darkening.
"We found the hydrated salts only when the seasonal features were widest, which suggests that either the dark streaks themselves or a process that forms them is the source of the hydration. In either case, the detection of hydrated salts on these slopes means that water plays a vital role in the formation of these streaks," said Lujendra Ojha of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta, lead author of a report on these findings published Sept. 28 by Nature Geoscience.
Ojha first noticed these puzzling features as a University of Arizona undergraduate student in 2010, using images from the MRO's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE). HiRISE observations now have documented RSL at dozens of sites on Mars. The new study pairs HiRISE observations with mineral mapping by MRO’s Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM).
The spectrometer observations show signatures of hydrated salts at multiple RSL locations, but only when the dark features were relatively wide. When the researchers looked at the same locations and RSL weren't as extensive, they detected no hydrated salt.
Ojha and his co-authors interpret the spectral signatures as caused by hydrated minerals called perchlorates. The hydrated salts most consistent with the chemical signatures are likely a mixture of magnesium perchlorate, magnesium chlorate and sodium perchlorate. Some perchlorates have been shown to keep liquids from freezing even when conditions are as cold as minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 70 Celsius). On Earth, naturally produced perchlorates are concentrated in deserts, and some types of perchlorates can be used as rocket propellant.
Perchlorates have previously been seen on Mars. NASA's Phoenix lander and Curiosity rover both found them in the planet's soil, and some scientists believe that the Viking missions in the 1970s measured signatures of these salts. However, this study of RSL detected perchlorates, now in hydrated form, in different areas than those explored by the landers. This also is the first time perchlorates have been identified from orbit.
MRO has been examining Mars since 2006 with its six science instruments.
"The ability of MRO to observe for multiple Mars years with a payload able to see the fine detail of these features has enabled findings such as these: first identifying the puzzling seasonal streaks and now making a big step towards explaining what they are," said Rich Zurek, MRO project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
For Ojha, the new findings are more proof that the mysterious lines he first saw darkening Martian slopes five years ago are, indeed, present-day water.
"When most people talk about water on Mars, they're usually talking about ancient water or frozen water," he said. "Now we know there’s more to the story. This is the first spectral detection that unambiguously supports our liquid water-formation hypotheses for RSL."
The discovery is the latest of many breakthroughs by NASA’s Mars missions.
“It took multiple spacecraft over several years to solve this mystery, and now we know there is liquid water on the surface of this cold, desert planet,” said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “It seems that the more we study Mars, the more we learn how life could be supported and where there are resources to support life in the future.”
There are eight co-authors of the Nature Geoscience paper, including Mary Beth Wilhelm at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California and Georgia Tech; CRISM Principal Investigator Scott Murchie of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland; and HiRISE Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona. Others are at Georgia Tech, the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique in Nantes, France.
The agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin built the orbiter and collaborates with JPL to operate it.
More information about NASA's journey to Mars is available online at:
www.nasa.gov/topics/journeytomars
For more information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit:
Caption and image source: www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-evidence-that-li...
Edited NASA PR image from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showing the Curiosity Rover near the base of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater. Color/processing variant.
Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23341
Original caption: NASA's Curiosity Mars rover can be seen in this image taken from space on May 31, 2019, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). In the image, Curiosity appears as a bluish speck.
The image shows Curiosity at a location called "Woodland Bay." It's just one of many stops the rover has made in an area referred to as the "clay-bearing unit" on the side of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain inside of Gale Crater.
Look carefully at the inset image, and you can make out what it is likely Curiosity's "head," technically known as the remote sensing mast. A bright spot appears in the upper-left corner of the rover. At the time this image was acquired, the rover was facing 65 degrees counterclockwise from north, which would put the mast in about the right location to produce this bright spot.
The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Image Addition Date:
2019-07-12
Crystalline gray hematite (Fe2O3) was first detected on Mars using the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES). The landing site for the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity was chosen at one of these hematite sites in Meridiani Planum.
After landing and driving around on the surface, scientists discovered that the hematite occurred in millimeter-size rounded particles that were concentrated along the upper surfaces of the soils.
In this HiRISE image taken within Capri Chasma, TES also detected the same crystalline gray hematite like that found at Meridiani Planum. The enhanced-color image shows a red surface, consistent with a material that contains the element iron. The plains here are similar to those seen at Meridiani Planum and suggest that hematite-rich particles are concentrating on the upper soils where they can be detected from orbit by TES.
This illustration depicts a concept for the possible extent of an ancient lake inside Gale Crater. The existence of a lake there billions of years ago was confirmed from examination of mudstone in the crater's Yellowknife Bay area. For this illustration, the possible extent was estimated by mapping ancient lake and stream deposits and recognizing that water flowed from the crater rim into the basin (arrows). The water would have pooled in the linear depression created between the crater rim and Mt. Sharp. The area's history likely included the coming and going of multiple lakes of different sizes as climate conditions evolved.
The base map combines image data from the Context Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and color information from Viking Orbiter imagery. The 25-kilometer scale bar at lower right is 15.5 miles long. North is up.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped this intriguing glimpse of pits (and they are pits, not mounds) in the southern polar ice cap. The ice is made of carbon dioxide (dry ice) and is about 10 feet thick here. The circular pits are about 200 feet across.
Sent by: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter | From: Mars | Released: September, 2011 | Credit: NASA/JPL/UA | Image source
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter PR image of recurring lines in Valles Marineris. Crop of larger image. Color variant.
Original caption: Recurring slope lineae (RSL) are seasonal flows on warm slopes, and are especially common in central and eastern Valles Marineris, as seen in this observation by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). This image covers a large area full of interesting features, but the enhanced color closeup highlight some of the RSL.
Here, the RSL are active on east-facing slopes, extending from bouldery terrain and terminating on fans. Perhaps the fans themselves built up over time from the seasonal flows. Part of the fans with abundant RSL are dark, while the downhill portion of the fans are bright. The role of water in RSL activity is a matter of active debate.
The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 52.6 centimeters (20.7 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 158 centimeters (62.2 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.
The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Edited NASA PR image from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showing the Curiosity Rover near the base of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater. Annotated version by NASA.
Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23341
Original caption: NASA's Curiosity Mars rover can be seen in this image taken from space on May 31, 2019, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). In the image, Curiosity appears as a bluish speck.
The image shows Curiosity at a location called "Woodland Bay." It's just one of many stops the rover has made in an area referred to as the "clay-bearing unit" on the side of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain inside of Gale Crater.
Look carefully at the inset image, and you can make out what it is likely Curiosity's "head," technically known as the remote sensing mast. A bright spot appears in the upper-left corner of the rover. At the time this image was acquired, the rover was facing 65 degrees counterclockwise from north, which would put the mast in about the right location to produce this bright spot.
The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Image Addition Date:
2019-07-12