Curiosity's Surroundings
This
is one of the first images taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which
landed on Mars on the morning of Aug. 6, 2012. It was taken through a
fisheye wide-angle lens on the left "eye" of a stereo pair of
Hazard-Avoidance cameras on the left-rear side of the rover. The image
is one-half of full resolution. The clear dust cover that protected the
camera during landing has been sprung open. Part of the spring that
released the dust cover can be seen at the bottom right, near the
rover's wheel.
On the top left, part of the rover's power supply is visible.
Some dust appears on the lens even with the dust cover off.
The cameras are looking directly into the sun, so the top of the image
is saturated. Looking straight into the sun does not harm the cameras.
The lines across the top are an artifact called "blooming" that occurs
in the camera's detector because of the saturation.
As planned,
the rover's early engineering images are lower resolution. Larger color
images from other cameras are expected later in the week when the
rover's mast, carrying high-resolution cameras, is deployed.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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