sábado, 26 de mayo de 2012

Postcard from Mars: Stunning photo of what life would really be like on the ... - Mirror.co.uk

This spectacular view is what life would really be like on Mars.

NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity has sent home the postcard from the red planet showing a panoramic view looking East across the huge Endeavour crater.

The six-wheel solar powered rover used a camera to take a series of shots between about 4.30 and 5:00pm local Mars time - roughly the same as Earth time.

It recorded the stunning image, with its own shadow reflected on the landscape, showing what the view would look like on a late winter afternoon.

The photograph is a mosaic image created from the pictures taken on March 9 after Opportunity spent a long winter on the edge of the crater.

Mars has a similar tilt and rotation to Earth so has the same kind of seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter and its day is about the same length.

The windswept vista northward (left) to northeastward (right) from the location where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is spending its fifth Martian winter
Windswept: The view from the 'Greeley Haven' outcrop

 

A Mars day is 24 hours and 40 minutes but because it takes 687 days to go around the sun, a Mars year is almost two Earth years.

The mosaic combines about a dozen images taken through special filters which were set on wavelengths near infrared, green and violet to capture the scene.

The view then had aqua colours added to highlight the differences between some dark, sandy ripples and dunes on the crater's distant floor easier to see.

Small parts of the edges of the mosaic and sky were also filled in an image taken earlier to show a 360-degree panorama from the same spot.

The mosaic was taken on Opportunity's 2,888th day on Martian soil.

It completed its original three-month mission on Mars eight years ago. 

NASA's Mars rover 'Opportunity'
Postcards: NASA's Mars rover Opportunity

An aluminum cuff serving as a cable shield on each of Opportunity's rock tools is made from aluminum taken from the World Trade Center.

Opportunity has been studying the western rim of Endeavour Crater since arriving at the spot in August 2011.

When the picture was taken the rover was spending low solar-energy weeks of the Martian winter at the Greeley Haven outcrop on the Cape York segment of Endeavour's western rim.

The late afternoon sun set the crater aglow and Opportunity waited for just the right lighting to send its postcard back to Earth.

This four billion year old crater is 14 miles across and the basin of it is shown in the upper half of the picture.

The impact which formed it left a jumble of rock fragments around the rim which had fused-together.

Analysis of the rocks has show that the original impact which created the crater released hot underground water which deposited zinc on the surface.

color view of a mineral vein called "Homestake" comes from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity
Minerals: Gypsum deposits is evidence water once flowed

Later, cool water flowed through cracks in the ground near the edge of the crater and deposited veins of the mineral gypsum.

"These bright mineral veins are different from anything seen previously on Mars, and they tell a clear story of water flowing through cracks in the rocks," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University and the principal investigator for Opportunity.

Reduced daylight during the Martian winter, and accumulated dust on the rover's solar array, have kept energy too low for driving since December.

But earlier this month the sun was high enough and the daylight long enough for Opportunity to get on the move again.

On May 8 it trundled 12 feet northwest and downhill away from the spot where the picture was taken.

 

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