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| This is a photograph of a "mysterious light" that was discovered by the Mars Rover. |
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Justin Maki was interviewed by Fox News.
"One possibility is that the light is the glint from a rock surface reflecting the sun," NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) lead for the engineering cameras on Curiosity Justin Maki told FoxNews.com.
Maki explained that the bright spots appear in single images taken by the Navigation Camera on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover's right-eye but not its left. In the right-eye images, the spot is in different locations and is seen at the ground surface level in front of a crater rim on the horizon.
"When these images were taken each day, the sun was in the same direction as the bright spot, west-northwest from the rover, and relatively low in the sky," said Maki. "The rover science team is also looking at the possibility that the bright spots could be sunlight reaching the camera's CCD directly through a vent hole in the camera housing, which has happened previously on other cameras on Curiosity and other Mars rovers when the geometry of the incoming sunlight relative to the camera is precisely aligned."
"We think it's either a vent-hole light leak or a glinty rock."
The picture was captured on April 3 by the right-hand navigation camera on NASA's Mars Curiosity rover.
A vent hole? This is the beginning of a new interplanetary Area 51!
"One possibility is that the light is the glint from a rock surface reflecting the sun," NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) lead for the engineering cameras on Curiosity Justin Maki told FoxNews.com.
Maki explained that the bright spots appear in single images taken by the Navigation Camera on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover's right-eye but not its left. In the right-eye images, the spot is in different locations and is seen at the ground surface level in front of a crater rim on the horizon.
"When these images were taken each day, the sun was in the same direction as the bright spot, west-northwest from the rover, and relatively low in the sky," said Maki. "The rover science team is also looking at the possibility that the bright spots could be sunlight reaching the camera's CCD directly through a vent hole in the camera housing, which has happened previously on other cameras on Curiosity and other Mars rovers when the geometry of the incoming sunlight relative to the camera is precisely aligned."
"We think it's either a vent-hole light leak or a glinty rock."
The picture was captured on April 3 by the right-hand navigation camera on NASA's Mars Curiosity rover.
FoxNews.com
A vent hole? This is the beginning of a new interplanetary Area 51!
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| The True Source of the Bright Light as seen by the Mars Rover |
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| http://www.nasa.gov |
The Cameras on the Curiosity Rover
The Curiosity rover has 17 cameras on it, which is the most of any NASA planetary mission ever.
The first is the MARDI, or the Mars Descent Imager, which took pictures as the rover was landing on Mars.
Then theres the MAHLI instrument, which is the camera mounted on the end of the arm, and that takes close-up, high-resolution color photos.
Along the bottom of the Rover there are hazard avoidance cameras, or the HazCams. There are four of these in the front and four in the back, and they're used to take pictures of the terrain near the wheels and nearby the rover.
Up on the mast, there are cameras that take most of the pictures for the mission.
There are the Navigation Cameras, which take pictures that are used to drive the rover. And the Mast Cameras, which are color imagers, which are used to do geology investigations.
And then finally there is the remote microscopic imager, which is part of the ChemCam laser instrument. And that's used to document the laser spots, that the rover makes on the surface.
Many of the black and white images that come back from the rover are from the engineering cameras, such as the Hazcams or the Navcams.
The reason that they're black and white, or gray scale, is because that's all the rover really needs in order to detect rocks and other obstacles.
Other cameras are color, such as the Mastcam imager, and the reason that they're color is because the scientists use the color information to learn about the soil and the rocks.
The rover has 2 different types of cameras. There are 1-megapixel black and white imagers for the engineering cameras and 2-megapixel color imagers for the science cameras.
The rover takes panoramic photos much like you do with your smart phone.
By taking individual pictures and then moving between the frames you can acquire a collection of pictures that you can then stitch together into a single panorama
The rover does the same thing. They move the cameras between each individual picture and stitch them together on the ground.
The rover is able to take its own picture using its robotic arm. Because the arm is 2 meters long, the rover is able to place the cameras out in front of itself and high above the rover deck.
The self portrait appears as though its been taken from a single wide angle lens camera out in front of the rover but its actually a series of individual images stitched together.
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| Grab your gear you're gonna need it! |
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