August 9, 2012
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech - MER Curiosity - Credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga/Lunar Explorer Italia/IPF
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This image was taken by the Left A NavCam (NAV_LEFT_A) onboard the NASA - Mars Rover Curiosity on Sol 2 (such as August, 8, 2012 at 07:04:32 UTC) of the Rover Mission to Gale Crater. The distant Rim of Gale Crater appears "fuzzy" (---> out of focus, blurred) because of the presence of a certain amount of Fog (mostly suspended Microscopic Dust Particles and, maybe, some Microscopic Water-Ice Cristals) in the air (Lower Atmosphere); right in front of the Left A NavCam, the Surface is heavily disturbed and that fact was due to the action of the retrorockets which allowed Curiosity to make (always relatively speaking) a "Soft Landing". "...Thrust from the rockets actually dug a one-and-a-half-foot-long [0.5-meter] trench in the Surface. It appears we can see Martian Bedrock on the bottom. Its depth below the Surface is valuable data we can use going forward..." said Dr John Grotzinger, Project Scientist for the Mission from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. This frame has been additionally processed and 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 - Mars Laboratory "Curiosity", and then looked towards the Horizon and Sky), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team. |
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