Starship Asterisk*

Alex_333 wrote:What an extraordinary picture. Do the colors correspond to what an human eye would see ?

Chris Peterson wrote:The full resolution image lets you see the ants.

Guest wrote:
What are the white streaks on the rocks? Salts?
Also you can see white material, perhaps rubbed off the rocks, on the rover's tires.

JohnD wrote:Sorry, Chris, I didn't see the 360 version obtainable by clicking on the APoD, but I still think that NASA's interactive version on YouTube is better!

https://phys.org/news/2016-05-curiosity-mars-rover-martian-year.html#jCp wrote:
Curiosity Mars rover completes its second Martian year
May 12, 2016 by Guy Webster

"Mars is much drier than our planet, and in particular Gale Crater, near the equator, is a very dry place on Mars," said Germán Martínez, a Curiosity science-team collaborator from Spain at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

The local atmosphere is clear in winter, dustier in spring and summer, and windy in autumn. Visibility in Gale Crater is as low as 20 miles (30 kilometers) in summer, and as high as 80 miles (130 kilometers) in winter.

Ann wrote:

neufer wrote:

Ann wrote: Speaking of sunny, why does the weather look all overcast in today's APOD?
Surely it wasn't an unusually cloudy day on Mars when the photos for today's APOD were taken.

There is almost always blowing dust on dry Mars and the distant edge of Gale Crater is some 75 miles away.

Thanks!

You should have explained that to Ray Bradbury. I can't remember the title of the story, but I'm sure I've read something by him (The Martian Chronicles?) where he wrote that the weather on Mars is really hot, because there are hardly any clouds in the sky, so the weather on Mars is always sunny. (On Venus, by contrast, it's wet and chilly, because the clouds are so thick... I'm sure Bradbury wrote something like that, too.)

neufer wrote:

Ann wrote:
Speaking of sunny, why does the weather look all overcast in today's APOD?
Surely it wasn't an unusually cloudy day on Mars when the photos for today's APOD were taken.

There is almost always blowing dust on dry Mars and the distant edge of Gale Crater is some 75 miles away.

Ann wrote:
Speaking of sunny, why does the weather look all overcast in today's APOD?
Surely it wasn't an unusually cloudy day on Mars when the photos for today's APOD were taken.

JohnD wrote:The APoD pic is so distorted as to be incomprehensible.

JohnD wrote:The APoD pic is so distorted as to be incomprehensible. The interactive version is so much better! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3qr9AqZyEI

The sedimentary rock is well seen in the mesa (right on the ApoD pic, almost behind the rover on the interactive) but how has the field it stands in become so broken up? It looks like a ploughed field!

And why is the dark sand so interesting? It must be the product of other strata, moved, mixed and deposited by semi-random wind processes, so much less informative than the local rocks?

John
PS And Ogunquit Beach? Gotta be called something, but it's nothing like! Oguquin is miles of smooth sand. For the quantities of rocks and sand Brighton Beach would be better! http://www.bugbog.com/beaches/british-b ... h-england/ But then the Curiosity team probably doesn't know Brighton.

brojo wrote:I like how they blacked out certain parts of the picture.
Top secret tech?

JohnD wrote:
Ogunquit Beach? Gotta be called something, but it's nothing like! Oguquin is miles of smooth sand. For the quantities of rocks and sand Brighton Beach would be better! http://www.bugbog.com/beaches/british-b ... h-england/ But then the Curiosity team probably doesn't know Brighton.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_Beach wrote:
<<Brighton Beach is an oceanside neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, along the Coney Island peninsula. Brighton Beach is bounded by Coney Island proper at Ocean Parkway to the west, Manhattan Beach at Corbin Place to the east, Sheepshead Bay at the Belt Parkway to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south along the beach and boardwalk. It is known for its high population of Russian-speaking immigrants, and as a summer destination for New York City residents due to its beaches along the Atlantic Ocean and its proximity to the amusement parks in Coney Island.>>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogunquit wrote:

Click to view full size image 1 or image 2

<<Ogunquit (oh-GUN-kwit) is a town in York County, Maine, United States. As of the 2010 census its population was 892. Ogunquit, which means "beautiful place by the sea" in the indigenous Abenaki language, was first a village within Wells, which was settled in 1641. The first sawmill here was established in 1686, and shipbuilding developed along the tidal Ogunquit River. Local shipwrights built schooners, brigs and dories. At what was then called Fish Cove, near the unnavigable Josias River, fishing was a major livelihood. But the cove was unprotected by a headland or breakwater from Atlantic storms, so fishermen had to protect their boats by hauling them ashore each night. With a 3½-mile beach of pale sand and dunes forming a barrier peninsula, connected to the mainland in 1888 by bridge across the Ogunquit River, the village was discovered by artists. It became a popular art colony and tourist area. To accommodate summer crowds, several seaside hotels and inns were built. Marginal Way, a scenic trail, runs along the coast from Perkins Cove to Ogunquit Beach. Part of Stephen King's The Stand, published in 1978, is set in Ogunquit. Ogunquit was named America's Best Coastal Small Town in USA Today's 10 Best Readers' Choice 2016. Ogunquit has become a destination for LGBT tourists, with numerous LGBT-owned and -operated hotels, restaurants, bars, theaters, and other businesses.>>

brojo wrote:I like how they blacked out certain parts of the picture.
Top secret tech?