|
Ever since the Curiosity rover landed on Mars, we've all been waiting for some clearer images of our planetary neighbor. Yesterday we saw the first high definition images of the red planet, that looks both dead and surprisingly earth-like. But this isn't any desert in Africa or a rocky field in Texas. If you tried walking there, you would freeze before you even had the chance to choke. Because this - is Mars. Also - Scroll down to hear what the first human voice on another planet had to say! |
 |
|
This image taken by the Mast Camera (MastCam) on NASA's Curiosity rover highlights the interesting geology of Mount Sharp, a mountain inside Gale Crater, where the rover landed. The 100-millimeter Mastcam has three times better resolution than Curiosity's 34-millimeter Mastcam, though it has a narrower field of view. It produces pictures are so clear you can almost smell the air. Like a hospital or scientific laboratory, Mars as we can imagine it today may be relatively sterile, harshly lit, and at the same time, occasionally peppered by odd colors, thinly pitched metal sounds and memorable chemical smells. |
 |
|
|
 |
|
The gravelly area around Curiosity's landing site is visible in the foreground. Farther away, about a third of the way up from the bottom of the image, the terrain falls off into a depression (a swale). Beyond the swale, in the middle of the image, is the boulder-strewn, red-brown rim of a moderately-sized impact crater. Father off in the distance, there are dark dunes and then the layered rock at the base of Mount Sharp. Some haze obscures the view, but the top ridge, depicted in this image, is 10 miles (16.2 kilometers) away. |
 |
