• Full-Circle Vista from NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Shows 'Murray Buttes'

    From baalke@1:2320/100 to sci.space.news on Mon Aug 22 02:34:04 2016
    From Newsgroup: sci.space.news


    http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6595

    Full-Circle Vista from NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Shows 'Murray Buttes'
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory
    August 19, 2016

    [Animation]
    This 360-degree vista was acquired on Aug. 5, 2016, by the Mastcam on
    NASA's Curiosity Mars rover as the rover neared features called "Murray Buttes" on lower Mount Sharp. The dark, flat-topped mesa seen to the left
    of the rover's arm is about 50 feet high and, near the top, about 200
    feet wide.

    Eroded mesas and buttes reminiscent of the U.S. Southwest shape part of
    the horizon in the latest 360-degree color panorama from NASA's Curiosity
    Mars rover.

    The rover used its Mast Camera (Mastcam) to capture dozens of component
    images of this scene on Aug. 5, 2016, four years after Curiosity's landing inside Gale Crater.

    The visual drama of Murray Buttes along Curiosity's planned route up lower Mount Sharp was anticipated when the site was informally named nearly
    three years ago to honor Caltech planetary scientist Bruce Murray (1931-2013), a former director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. JPL manages the Curiosity mission for NASA.

    The buttes and mesas are capped with rock that is relatively resistant
    to wind erosion. This helps preserve these monumental remnants of a layer
    that formerly more fully covered the underlying layer that the rover is
    now driving on.

    Early in its mission on Mars, Curiosity accomplished its main goal when
    it found and examined an ancient habitable environment. In an extended mission, the rover is examining successively younger layers as it climbs
    the lower part of Mount Sharp. A key goal is to learn how freshwater lake conditions, which would have been favorable for microbes billions of years
    ago if Mars has ever had life, evolved into harsher, arid conditions much
    less suited to supporting life. The mission is also monitoring the modern environment of Mars.

    These findings have been addressing high-priority goals for planetary
    science and further aid NASA's preparations for a human mission to the
    Red Planet.

    For more information about Curiosity, visit:

    http://www.nasa.gov/msl

    http://mars.nasa.gov/msl

    News Media Contact
    Guy Webster
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
    818-354-6278
    guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

    Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo
    NASA Headquarters, Washington
    202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077
    dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov

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