NASA/JPL: Full-Circle Vista from MSL Shows 'Murray Buttes'

Find out the latest thinking about our universe.
Post Reply
User avatar
bystander
Apathetic Retiree
Posts: 21571
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:06 pm
Location: Oklahoma

NASA/JPL: Full-Circle Vista from MSL Shows 'Murray Buttes'

Post by bystander » Sat Aug 20, 2016 1:21 pm

Full-Circle Vista from Mars Curiosity Rover Shows 'Murray Buttes'
NASA | JPL-Caltech | MSL Curiosity | 2016 Aug 19
[c][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUweNrpFTwA[/youtube]NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover at Murray Buttes (360 View)
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
[/c][hr][/hr]
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.
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

Post Reply