Astronomy Picture of the Day
July 7, 2012

On the Edge of Victoria Crater (Part I)
On the Edge of Victoria Crater (Part I)

Credits: NASA/JPL/Cornell - MER Opportunity - Credits for the additional process.: Dr Gianluigi Barca/Lunar Explorer Italia/IPF

The NASA - Mars Exploration Rover-B (MER) Opportunity captured this vista of "Victoria Crater" from the viewpoint of "Cape Verde", one of the promontories that are part of the scalloped Rim of the Crater. Opportunity drove onto Cape Verde shortly after arriving at the Rim of Victoria in September of the AD 2006.
The view combines hundreds of exposures taken by the Rover's Panoramic Camera (PanCam). The camera began taking the component images during Opportunity's 970th Martian Day, or Sol, on Mars (such as Oct., 16, 2006). Work on the panorama continued through the Solar Conjunction Period, when Mars was nearly behind the Sun from Earth's perspective and communications were minimized. Acquisition of images for this panorama was completed on Opportunity's 991st Sol (such as Nov., 7, 2006).
The top of Cape Verde is in the immediate foreground at the center of the image. To the left and right are two of the more gradually sloped Bays that alternate with the Cliff-faced capes or Promontories around the Rim of the Crater. "Duck Bay", where Opportunity first reached the Rim, is to the right.
Beyond Duck Bay counterclockwise around the Rim, the next Promontory is "Cabo Frio", about 150 meters (500 feet) from the Rover.

On the left side of the panorama is "Cape St. Mary", the next Promontory clockwise from Cape Verde and about 40 meters (130 feet) from the Rover. The vantage point atop Cape Verde offered a good view of the Rocky Layers in the Cliff-face of Cape St. Mary, which is about 15 meters or 50 feet tall.
By about two weeks after the PanCam finished collecting the images for this panorama, Opportunity drove to Cape St. Mary and started photographing Cape Verde's Rocky Layers. The far side of the Crater lies about 800 meters (approx. half a mile) away, toward the South-East.


This frame has been colorized in Absolute Natural Colors (such as the colors that a normal human eye would actually perceive if someone were on the Surface of Mars, near the NASA - Mars Exploration Rover-B Opportunity, and then looked towards Victoria Crater), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team.


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