High-Res Photo Shows Sand-Capped Butte Rising from Mars Plain of Polygons
129 points by bookofjoe 7 days ago | 10 comments

iamjs 4 hours ago
This fascinating map of the path the curiosity rover has taken since landing really helps put this into perspective

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/msl-curiosity/location-map/

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oplav 6 hours ago
> The color was adjusted to match the lighting conditions as the human eye would see it if a person were standing on the surface of the Red Planet.

Is the non-adjusted color version available anywhere?

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GMoromisato 2 hours ago
I don't know, but note that the raw, unadjusted images are no more "authentic" than the color-adjusted ones.

Mastcam uses a Bayer RGB matrix, very similar to a consumer digital camera. Effectively, each "pixel" of the matrix has an R, G, or B color filter in front of it. I don't know the specific wavelength response of each filter, but it's likely to be very close to a high-end consumer camera.

This is different from (e.g.,) Hubble images, which (a) are captured through non-RGB filters, and (b) use long exposures far beyond what a human eye would see.

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sandgiant 7 hours ago
> NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this sand-capped butte, nicknamed “Miraflores,” estimated to be about 20 feet (6 meters) tall, on June 11, 2026. The surrounding area includes an expanse of terrain covered in surface features called polygons.

From https://www.nasa.gov/missions/mars-science-laboratory/curios...

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poulpy123 5 hours ago
I can recognize a reptilian pyramid when I see one
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neom 5 hours ago
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gtm1260 3 hours ago
Nasa needs to send an iphone to mars - every photo from there looks so weird.
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ourmandave 25 minutes ago
With the Interplanetary Unlimited Plan.*

* Data exceeding 10GB/month will be rate limited to Voyager 2 speed.

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