[ad_1]
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on Tuesday released a stunning “selfie” taken by the Curiosity Mars rover.
In a tweet, the Curiosity team explained that the image was captured near the impressive rock formation named “Mont Mercou” after a mountain in southern France.
NASA PREVIEW THE FIRST HELICOPTER FLIGHTS MARS: EACH ENTRY STEP IS AN “ UNCHARGED TERRITORY ”
“I wish you were here! This selfie was taken in front of ‘Mont Mercou’, a 6 meter high rock formation,” JPL said, “It is made up of 60 images from my MAHLI camera and 11 images from my Mastcam. Look close enough to spot a new borehole – my 30th sample to date. “
The selfie, taken earlier this month, was posted alongside an additional pair of three-dimensional and panoramic photos of the Martian landscape.
In a caption accompanying the image, JPL explained that Curiosity stitched together different images to create the selfie in front of the 20-foot-high rock outcrop.
“The panorama is made up of 60 images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the rover’s robotic arm on March 26, 2021, the 3070th Martian, or ground, day of the mission,” they wrote. “These were combined with 11 images taken by the Mastcam on the mast, or ‘head’ of the rover on March 16, 2021, the 3060th Martian day of the mission.”
The panorama is made up of 60 images from the MAHLI camera on the robotic arm of the rover as well as 11 images from the Mastcam on the mast, or “head” of the rover. Credits: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.
Curiosity landed on the surface of Mars on August 6, 2012 at 1:32 am ET.
Visible to the left of the rover is a hole where its robotic drill sampled a rock named by scientists as “Nontron” – a village in south-eastern France.
Nicknames related to Nontron were chosen because Mars orbiters detected nontronite, a type of clay mineral, in the region.
In a press release issued Tuesday by JPL, researchers explained that the Curiosity drill had “pulverized” the Nontron sample before “making it enter the instruments inside the rover.”
The process was necessary so that their scientific team could better understand the composition and history of the rock.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
“This area sits at the transition between the start of the Curiosity ‘clay unit’ and the ‘sulfated unit’ which sits on Mount Sharp, the 3 mile high (5 kilometer high) mountain that the rover. have been rolling since 2014, ”they wrote.
“Scientists have long believed that this transition could reveal what happened to Mars as it became the desert planet we see today,” JPL added.
[ad_2]
Source link