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From: Kent Castle <kent.d.castle@hotmail.com>
Date: June 20, 2013 6:11:55 PM GMT-06:00
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Subject: FW: Rover's Stunning Billion-Pixel Photo
From:
Subject: FW: Rover's Stunning Billion-Pixel Photo
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2013 15:18:24 -0500
Billion-Pixel View of Mars Comes From Curiosity Rover
This is a reduced version of panorama from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity with 1.3 billion pixels in the full-resolution version. It shows Curiosity at the "Rocknest" site where the rover scooped up samples of windblown dust and sand. Curiosity used three cameras to take the component images on several different days between Oct. 5 and Nov. 16, 2012. Viewers can explore this image with pan and zoom controls at http://mars.nasa.gov/bp1/. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
› Full image and caption
June 19, 2013
PASADENA, Calif. -- A billion-pixel view from the surface of Mars, from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, offers armchair explorers a way to examine one part of the Red Planet in great detail.
The first NASA-produced view from the surface of Mars larger than one billion pixels stitches together nearly 900 exposures taken by cameras onboard Curiosity and shows details of the landscape along the rover's route.
The 1.3-billion-pixel image is available for perusal with pan and zoom tools at: http://mars.nasa.gov/bp1/ and a scaled down version (~159MB) is available for direct download here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA16919 .
The full-circle scene surrounds the site where Curiosity collected its first scoops of dusty sand at a windblown patch called "Rocknest," and extends to Mount Sharp on the horizon.
"It gives a sense of place and really shows off the cameras' capabilities," said Bob Deen of the Multi-Mission Image Processing Laboratory at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "You can see the context and also zoom in to see very fine details."
Deen assembled the product using 850 frames from the telephoto camera of Curiosity's Mast Camera instrument, supplemented with 21 frames from the Mastcam's wider-angle camera and 25 black-and-white frames -- mostly of the rover itself -- from the Navigation Camera. The images were taken on several different Mars days between Oct. 5 and Nov. 16, 2012. Raw single-frame images received from Curiosity are promptly posted on a public website at: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/ . Mars fans worldwide have used those images to assemble mosaic views, including at least one gigapixel scene.
The new mosaic from NASA shows illumination effects from variations in the time of day for pieces of the mosaic. It also shows variations in the clarity of the atmosphere due to variable dustiness during the month while the images were acquired.
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project is using Curiosity and the rover's 10 science instruments to investigate the environmental history within Gale Crater, a location where the project has found that conditions were long ago favorable for microbial life.
Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates Curiosity's Mastcam. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington and built the Navigation Camera and the rover.
More information about the mission is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ .
You can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .
For more information about the Multi-Mission Image Processing Laboratory, see: http://www-mipl.jpl.nasa.gov/mipex.html .
Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov
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Wow! Mars Rover Captures Stunning Billion-Pixel Photo of Red Planet
by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer
19 June 2013 Time: 03:53 PM ET
A new 1.3-billion-pixel image from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity allows viewers to zoom in and investigate part of the Red Planet in incredible detail.
This is a reduced version of a mosaic from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity containing 1.3 billion pixels in the full-resolution version. It shows Curiosity at the "Rocknest" site, where the rover scooped up samples of windblown dust and sand, and was released on June 19, 2013. Viewers can explore this image with pan and zoom controls at http://mars.nasa.gov/bp1/.
CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSSView full size image
The huge mosaic stitches together nearly 900 photos that the Curiosity rover took with some of its 17 cameras during the robot's exploration of Gale Crater on Mars, NASA officials said.
"It gives a sense of place and really shows off the cameras' capabilities," Bob Deen, of the Multi-Mission Image Processing Laboratory at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement. "You can see the context and also zoom in to see very fine details."
The new image is the first NASA-produced view from the surface of Mars that's larger than 1 billion pixels, officials said. It's a full-circle scene centered on the site dubbed "Rocknest," where Curiosity gathered its first scoops of sandy soil for analysis. The 3.4-mile-high (5.5 kilometers) Mount Sharp looms in the distance.
You can access the full-resolution, zoomable image at: http://mars.nasa.gov/bp1/ .
Deen constructed the mosaic using 871 pictures from Curiosity's Mast Camera instrument and 25 black-and-white frames from the rover's navigation cameras. The photos were taken between Oct. 5 and Nov. 16, 2012, officials said.
Curiosity landed inside the 96-mile-wide (154 km) Gale Crater on Aug. 5, 2012, kicking off a planned two-year surface mission to assess Mars' past and present potential to host microbial life. In addition to its 17 cameras, Curiosity also carries 10 different science instruments to aid its quest.
The six-wheeled robot has already checked off its primary goal. Mission scientists announced in March that a spot near Curiosity's landing site called Yellowknife Bay was indeed habitable long ago.The foothills of Mount Sharp, which lie about 5 miles (8 km) from Yellowknife Bay as the crow flies, have long been Curiosity's ultimate destination; mission scientists want to read the history of Mars' changing environmental conditions like a book as the rover climbs up the mountain's lower reaches.
Curiosity is wrapping up activities near its landing site and should be ready to start the roughly year-long journey to Mount Sharp in the coming days, mission team members have said.
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