A day on Mars: NASA’s Curiosity rover sends a beautiful postcard from Red Planet

NASA shared a "postcard image" of the red planet taken by the Curiosity Mars rover. Here is everything you need to know about what is in the image and how it was taken.

This image is a colourised artistic interpretation of two black-and-white panoramas taken by the Curiosity rover. (NASA / JPL)

Listen to this article

00:00

1x 1.5x 1.8x

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) shared a postcard image of “Marker Band Valley” on Mars, depicting two parts of the same day on the red planet. JPL shared the image on Tuesday and also shared a helpful guide that labelled everything you can see on the screen.

The image was created by combining two black-and-white panoramas captured by Curiosity’s navigation cameras. Colour was added to create an artistic interpretation of the vista. The sky was coloured blue for the part that was taken in the morning and red for the part of the combined image that was taken in the afternoon.

Annotated version of image taken by the curiosity rover on Mars

An annotated version of the same image provided by NASA.

The images were taken on April 8 at 9.20 AM and 3.40 PM local Mars time. The contrast provided by the different lighting during those times were combined to make details stand out.

Story continues below this ad

While taking the image, Curiosity was in the foothills of Mount Sharp, which is a mountain that stands 5 kilometres high in the Gale Crater. Since it landed in 2012, the rover has been exploring this crater.

The original non-colour version of the morning panorama captured by Curiosity. (NASA)

The Marker Band Valley, which is a “sulphate-bearing region” where Curiosity discovered unexpected signs of an ancient lake can be seen at a distance. Further away, you can see two hills that called Bolivar and Deepdale.

“Anyone who’s been to a national park knows the scene looks different in the morning than it does in the afternoon.Capturing two times of day provides dark shadows because the lighting is coming in from the left and the right, like you might have on a stage – but instead of stage lights, we’re relying on the Sun,” said Curiosity engineer Doug Ellison in a press statement.

The original non-coloured version of the afternoon panorama captured by Curiosity. (NASA / JPL)

Also, since the image was taken by a camera looking past the backside of the rover, you can also see three antennas and the rover’s nuclear power source (“Radioisotope thermoelectric generator.”) The Radiations Assessment Detector in the image is designed to help scientists understand radiation on the planet and how future astronauts can be protected from it.