SO – THIS IS the neighbours’ gaff.
NASA’s Curiosity rover has sent back its first high-resolution photographs from Mars – giving humanity its first detailed look at the landscape of another planet.
The colour contrast has been adjusted by NASA – the original is covered with a yellow-orangey hue – in order to make the photo reflect what Mars would look like if it had the same level of natural sunlight as does Earth.
This is only a tiny slice of the image sent back by the $2.5 billion rover, which will shortly begin its trek to the top of the mountainous region seen in this photo. It’s from there that the rover will begin its more intensive work.
To give some sense of perspective: the mountain ridge at the top of the image is 16.2 kilometres away; the hilly region at the bottom is about 5.5 kilometres from where Curiosity took the photo last Thursday.
If you look really closely at the centre of the photo, you’ll see a small black dot on a flat area in front of the foremost hill. NASA says that dot is a rock which is about the same size as Curiosity itself – which is about the size of an average family car.
Anyone looking to see the original 1463-by-1928-pixel photo in all its 2MB, yellowish glory, click here.
Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
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