At 15:45:38 UTC the Mastcam Right has captured this rock with a very singular morphology!If you look closely at this rock, you will notice that it is formed by thin overlapping layers; it should be a sedimentary rock like many others already shown in this page, but this is not so!In fact, the common sedimentary rocks show themselves as slabs more or less eroded, but… Read More »Curiosity Sol 2674, February 13, 2020
At 11:36:22 UTC the Mastcam Right has filmed a new excavation just made by the Curiosity drill.The excavation seems to be deep enough to have produced sufficient material for mineralogical analysis; the area had been previously “cleaned” by the rotating wire brush (DRT), leaving already a glimpse of the true turquoise color of the rock, which is also confirmed by the color of the excavated… Read More »Curiosity Sol 2668, February 7, 2020
At 13:43:07 UTC the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) imaged these very unique concatenated rock rings.The photo was taken from a distance of 7.59 cm with a definition of 0.034 mm/pixel, thus covering an area of 5.45 cm X 4.05 cm.The rock rings you are observing are roughly the diameter of the little finger of a woman’s hand!Looking at the nearest ring you can see… Read More »Curiosity Sol 2666, February 5, 2020
At 06:31:45 UTC the Mastcam Right captured this colorful ridge of layered rocks with a somewhat hazy blue sky and wonderful (water?) flows on the sand below.The situation is very similar to the previous post (see https://www.facebook.com/PianetaMarte.MdM/photos/a.1625578140858706/2695087970574379/) but with a more hazy sky. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to have at least two photos of the same area taken at different times; it would be… Read More »Curiosity Sol 2663, February 2, 2020
At 05:44:30 UTC the Mastcam Right captured this colorful ridge of stratified rocks with a clear blue sky and wonderful flows (of water?) on the sand below.I am sincerely ecstatic to observe closely these dark “flows” that look very similar to the famous RSL (acronym for Recurring Slope Lineae, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_flows_on_warm_Martian_slopes) but smaller.The variety of colors is truly amazing!Even with all the good will, I… Read More »Curiosity Sol 2659, January 29, 2020
At 08:39:44 UTC the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) captured a small “rock” suspended from the ground by a small “stalk”!The photo was taken from a distance of 7.42 cm with a definition of 0.034 mm/pixel, thus covering an area of 5.36 cm X 3.98 cm.The strange “rock” is visible in the lower left part of the original image and in the 3X enlargement in… Read More »Curiosity Sol 2660, January 30, 2020
At 09:06:48 UTC the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) captured this very close detail of a truly extraordinary rock!The photo was taken from a distance of only 3.83 cm with a definition of 0.021 mm/pixel, thus covering an area of 3.32 cm X 2.47 cm.Observing the spherules captured in this image, one is led to note the extraordinary similarities with terrestrial ooids. In fact, some… Read More »Curiosity Sol 2660, January 30, 2020
At 23:59:34 UTC the Mastcam Right captured these beautiful “green mountains”, actually the inner rim of the Gale crater.The sky on the horizon appears cloudy in this photo as well, except for a glimpse of blue sky visible in the upper right corner of the image.Personally, I can’t stop staring at the green areas; such a shade of green hasn’t been observed in a while!The… Read More »Curiosity Sol 2657, January 26, 2020
At 21:17:11 UTC Mastcam Left took this nice overview of the long cloud formation on the horizon already partially shown in the previous post (see https://www.facebook.com/PianetaMarte.MdM/photos/a.1625578140858706/2683478418402001/). This photo frames a field of about 90° in width, or about a quarter of the entire horizon.It is evident that in reality Mars is not as arid as one would normally be led to believe!The original image is… Read More »Curiosity Sol 2654, January 23, 2020
At 21:17:28 UTC Mastcam Right captured this beautiful ridge of blue rocks, with a red ridge in the distance and a clear blue sky interrupted by a long white cloud on the horizon.In the red ridge in the background, the lower left part of the photo, you can see several dark “flows” that look a lot like the famous RSLs (acronym for Recurring Slope Lineae,… Read More »Curiosity Sol 2654, January 23, 2020