Mars in true color from Curiosity. [1920x1080]
![Mars in true color from Curiosity. [1920x1080]](/api/ImgurImages?id=7SqL0BC.jpg)
Posted Feb 11, 2013, 4:19 PM UTC
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It's slowly hitting me that the whole goddamn planet is a fucking desert.
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rusty desert
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Now let it slowly hit you that some people think we should move there if the Earth becomes too inhospitable.
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Can't be worse than Arizona.
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I've been out in that area doing a training helo raid in the middle of the night when I was in the Marines. We were getting swept by brutally cold winds and the only things growing out there where these viciously needley cacti. The most god forsaken place I've ever laid eyes on.
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inhospitable due to the environment or due to overpopulation?
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Maybe Tatooine was inspired by Mars?
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Hmmm can someone explain to me why sometimes the Martian sky is orangish but in this picture it looks like it has a tinge of blue in it? Is it because of the iron particles or something?
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I don't have a solid answer for you but my guess is it has to do with the color correction that was done.
Here is a raw, uncorrected image from Curiosity.
Here is the same image after color correction.
You can see that the color correction removes a lot of the reddish orange color that permeates the original. This red orange hue is due to the Martian atmosphere, according to this article.
So when you correct for the red orange color, maybe the sky becomes bluer? That's my guess.
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What is the color correcting for? If we were on mars would we see the color corrected or the uncorrected?
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If you were actually on Mars, it would look like the uncorrected version. The atmosphere would give everything a reddish orange tinge.
I think the reason behind the color correction is so that it is easier to compare Mars to Earth by removing the atmospheric effects as a "distraction," as it were. In effect, it makes the image look like you're standing on Mars but with Earth's atmosphere. This allows the viewer to focus just on the geology.
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So if the uncorrected version is actually what it would look like why do they call it correcting? Wouldn't it be de-correcting or something since it's actually wrong in the corrected version?
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Gotcha, thanks!
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Just came across this thread and felt like your question deserved the correct answer. "Color correction" is misleading because people associate it with what programs like Photoshop do.
These images taken by Curiosity were not taken with cameras like you and I can just go buy. A traditional digital camera uses a Bayer filter to measure the intensity of each pixel for "Red" (~600-675nm), "Green" (~515-600nm), and "Blue" (~450-515nm) wavelength bands.
These pictures with taken with a hyperspectral imaging sensor called MastCam. Essentially, these sensors measure intensities on much narrower bands of spectrum (e.g. 10-15nm wide), and subdivided into significantly more bands, some of them even outside the range of human vision.
The trick with spectral images, however, is in making them useful visually. "True color" (from the title) is actually a term specifically used to indicate that an image was captured with a spectral sensor but is being displayed in a way that should approximate what your eye would see. In effect, you take a band inside the "Red" spectrum and display that as your image's "Red" intensity, a band inside the "Green" spectrum and display that as your image's "Green intensity, and a band inside the "Blue" spectrum and display that as your image's "Blue" intensity.
The end result of the above is an RGB image that looks pretty close to what your eye would have seen, but not exactly. "Color correction" in this case refers to an algorithm designed around this sensor that uses more of the spectral data to bring the image in line with what our eyes would actually see.
Side note: any color satellite imagery that you might see on Google Maps/Earth, Bing Maps, etc is created using a very similar process.
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So color corrected is what we would actually see? The other guy said the opposite. Who do I trust?
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I wonder how long it takes Curiosity to upload such a high quality image to Earth?
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Thanks for the information. Mars is so fascinating.
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There is very little Rayleigh scattering on Mars because the atmosphere is so thin, so it actually has the opposite effect as on Earth - on Mars the sky tends to be redder during the day and bluer as the sun sets. :)
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That cylindrical object on Curiosity looks like it's wrapped in duct tape.
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Hmm, in reality Mars sure looks more boring than on television..
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I think it's awesome. We are viewing another planet. It excites me just thinking about it!
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It's so Earth-like. But if you take a walk there, you would suffocate. It's weird thinking about it.
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It gives me goosebumps to think it's an actual place - something that I could touch, I could be in that place, feel how soft or hard things are.. Now I do understand that I actually can't but.. I don't know if this makes any sense at all. Just seeing the photos that look like any photo on a place that I can go to and touch things... It's so damn exiting!
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If we could colonize Arizona we can do the same with Mars!
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You have no idea how awesome that pic looks, that picture is so calm and soothing. The only thing that'd make this even better is listening to the sound of mars.
I hope one day I can step my foot in that planet, one day !
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Every time I see pictures of Mars, all I can think of is PKD's representation of it: a desolate planet where so many will go for a new frontier only to find it as barren as earth as it will become at the time when we could actually colonize Mars.
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I still can't wrap my head around the fact this picture was taken on another planet !
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umm, what's the explanation for the footprints?
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where?
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I'm assuming this is colour-corrected?
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Looks like Nevada! :tinfoil: Seriously great picture!
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Can someone subtlety Photoshop "MARS" in the background?
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Probably yes.
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DANG MARS YOU...ain't that scary.
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I want to go there.
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I didn't planet, but I set this as my wallpaper. XD
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Looks alot like West Texas.
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Whoa.
This is another -planet-.
Fuuuuuck.
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So, is this what it would look like if I was standing there in a space suit?
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NASA should create a twitter account for Curiosity and post stuff like this. Or is there already one?
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Looks like New Mexico to me.
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Original
More Curiosity pictures can also be found at NASA - Mars Images.
If someone would make a 3840x1080 version of that w/ and w/out colour correction..
These Hi-Res versions were posted a few days ago. One of them is 3840x1080.
Splendid, thank you!
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