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NASA's Mars Exploration Program (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
Sol 84: Self Portrait
This panorama combines 63 exposures taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) during the Sol 84 of Curiosity's work on Mars (November 30, 2012)
The MAHLI "self portrait" of the rover that we planned on Sol 84 came out beautifully. Several other updates on the MSL mission are related to the news conference this morning, which included discussion of SAM atmospheric measurements. The SAM data indicate that much of Mars' atmosphere has escaped, as suspected based on previous studies. The rate of atmospheric escape is greater on Mars than on Earth because of the difference in gravity--if you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you would weigh only 38 pounds on Mars. This difference makes it easier for gas molecules to fly away from Mars, and for the effects of these losses to be measured.
Written by Ken Herkenhoff
Other panoramas of Mars by Curiosity rover:
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The planet Earth has proven to be too limiting for our awesome community of panorama photographers. We're getting an increasing number of submissions that depict locations either not on Earth (like Mars, the Moon, and Outer Space in general) or do not realistically represent a geographic location on Earth (either because they have too many special effects or are computer generated) and hence don't strictly qualify for our Panoramic World project.But many of these panoramas are extremely beautiful or popular of both.So, in order to accommodate our esteemed photographers and the huge audience that they attract to 360Cities with their panoramas, we've created a new section (we call it an "area") called "Out of this World" for panoramas like these.Don't let the fact that these panoramas are being placed at the Earth's South Pole fool you - we had to put them somewhere in order not to interfere with our Panoramic World.Welcome aboard on a journey "Out of this World".
