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NASA / JPL-Caltech / Ken Kremer / Marco Di Lorenzo
A photographic mosaic shows the Curiosity rover's surroundings at a Martian location known as Yellowknife Bay. This view has been assembled from black-and-white images captured by the rover's navigation camera on Sol 132 (Dec. 19). Gaps in imagery of the Martian sky have been filled in, and the whole scene has been colorized. Click here or on the image to see the complete 360-degree panorama.
The cameras on NASA's Curiosity rover have been clicking away over the holidays — gathering enough pictures for a 360-degree panorama of its rocky surroundings at Yellowknife Bay, plus a close-up view showing a "Martian flower" seemingly sprouting from the surface.
The panorama was assembled from pictures snapped by the rover's navigation camera system on the 132nd Martian day of Curiosity's mission on the Red Planet, also known as Sol 132 or Dec. 19.
In this case, the folks doing the assembling are Ken Kremer, a New Jersey-based journalist, research chemist and photographer; and Marco Di Lorenzo, a physicist who's a high-school educator and photographer in Italy. They stitched together the black-and-white images, filled in the gaps in the Martian sky and colorized the scene to reflect what an observer on Mars might see.
We've featured the efforts of Kremer and Di Lorenzo several times before: They're part of an active online community that makes use of the raw images provided by Curiosity and other Mars probes, and then shares them via websites such as UnmannedSpaceflight.com. Even now, the folks at UnmannedSpaceflight are posting plenty of amazing pictures from Yellowknife Bay, including a must-see, zoomable GigaPan version.
Another picture from Sol 132 has stirred up some buzz at the Above Top Secret discussion forum. The picture focuses in on a bright, crumpled object that's sitting on a Martian outcrop, as seen by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI. The translucent shape is reminiscent of a flower's pistils, which led one of the forum's members to call it a "Martian flower."
NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
An anomalous bit of bright material can be seen left of center in this view captured by Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager on Sol 132 of the mission (Dec. 19).
Update for 8:30 p.m. ET: I initially suspected that the flower was a tiny shred of plastic from the rover itself. Such a shred popped up in October. At that time, experts at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory surmised that the plastic may have been a bit of wrapping that was knocked loose from the Mars Science Laboratory's descent stage during the spacecraft's August landing. The plastic was thought to have fallen on top of the rover, and then dropped to the ground weeks later.
That's what led me to go with the plastic-scrap hypothesis. However, some of the folks commenting on the pictures noted that the object seemed to be embedded in the rock — which would argue against my hypothesis. So I put in an inquiry with Guy Webster, who serves as JPL's main spokesman for NASA's Mars missions.
A couple of hours later, Webster emailed me the verdict: "That appears to be part of the rock, not debris from the spacecraft."
Mystery solved? It's certainly an intriguing bit of mineral that stands out prominently in the MAHLI picture. If I find out anything more, I'll be sure to pass it along. And if it turns out that flowers are really sprouting up on Mars, you'll know it's time to cue up the "X-Files" theme. Either way, the truth is out there.
The Curiosity rover has released more images of Mars, including a self-portrait created with more than 50 images. NBC's Kate Snow has more.
More pictures from Kremer and Di Lorenzo:
- Scenes from Mars' 'Promised Land'
- Rover checks out its belly on Mars
- Curiosity adds color to Martian peak
- Mars rover points to its destination
- Still more from KenKremer.com
More about Martian anomalies:
- Opportunity's rover rotini
- Spirit's 'Mermaid on Mars'
- Opportunity's bunny ears
- Phoenix's Martian spring
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Trace the Curiosity rover's journey to Mars and see the pictures that the six-wheeled robot has sent back from the Red Planet.
Leave a Comment:
Martian dropped a molar!!
Pull it out by the root and I bet it says Made in China.
kinda looks like mother of pearl....cool.
Wasn't there a lot of skepticism about space travel, going to the moon - all being done on a movie set somewhere in years past to fool the world - they even made a movie about it I think - conspiracy theory
Great, now that we'er done contaminating the earth and it's oceans with plastic, next stop, let's contaminate mars too.......Sound like pretty shoddy assembly work on behalf of the manufacturers
Neither the photos or samples have returned any more than the other two rovers combined. Curiosity is not only a waste of money, it contaminates the environment period. Flowers don't grow on mars, for that matter nothing does.
For what its worth IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE PLASTIC !
And it would be cool if it was some sort of Fun guy LOL !
No matter what it may be its XX COOL ! NICE JOB GUYS !
They know it's not a flower. They've got a pretty good idea what it is. Why is this article headlined that it photographed a "flower"? As soon as I saw the word flower in parenthesis, I knew the article was pointless. The pics are great to look at. That's incentive enough to look at them without trying so hard to "find" life where it isn't.
You would make a pretty crappy scientist. (Study all, let nothing pass.)
Because they call it a flower as a nickname, the whole article is invalid? The author is just reporting what the group nicknamed it.
Yes, it's like the "rover rotini" or the "Martian bunny ears." That's what people have called those features, even though they are not asserting that the features are actually pieces of pasta or the ears of rabbits.
Logic dictates, go back and take the picture again from a different perspective... yeah?
Looks like a tribble turd to me.
Those are trouble...
I think what is of more interest is the apparent sedimentary layering of the rock outcrop which could have been formed from a shallow lake or small sea. And the close up of the rock seems to show it to be a conglomerate that could have been caused by flowing water. Perhaps Alan could comment on these.
I would expect mission control to instruct the rover to conduct a closer inspection of this mysterious outcropping. For example chemical analysis or other tests to see its composition. Imagine finding organic compounds in that shiny stuff.
IMO THE rock looks volcanic so maybe its a diamond ?
That would get some Greedy bastard to take another look !
Boy...looking at that picture it just seems like you'd find something alive just over the next hill. It has everything you'd expect to find in dry gully in the desert....'cept life
Looks like this 'flower' was molten at one point..glasslike. definitely appears to be embedded/part of the surface. Possibly wind worn quartz ?
It looks like mica to me.
Clearly...The tip of a vein of martian Unobtanium crystal. I've seen it before in similar structure and color on several other planets in your galaxy. Silly Earthlings, your learning!
P.S. Nice landing on that robot of yours. When we intercepted your videos of the that crazy plan to land your craft, we watched with as much anticipation as you...well done!
I would rather know what's happening on Mars because it's SSDD here on Earth.
amazing as it seems ,is most of us dont give a flyin s... what they think theyve found!! i would be more interested to know how many politicians could take the next ride up
Alan, thank you for an interesting article. Now, I guess we'll have to wait and see what NASA and the JPL can quesstimate what that really is. Whatever, it will still be interesting to us amateur astronuts. (Spelling correct for that last word. LOL)
The shape of the shiny part resembles most of the surrounding rocks. Many other rocks show a shiny part but just barely. Makes me think that the tops of these rocks were 'polished' by very hot and very fine sand...perhaps as a result of a meteor hit.
Copy, put in a graphic program, blow it up gently and it's glued right into that rock very solid hook up. And the shadow below it is very inagrated into the piece also. The larger rock sticking out on top has some of the same shine quality also. It will be interesting to find out if they appear all over the planet.
Some areas of New Mexico have small igneous rocks coated with a calcite-like substance that look just like that object. They can be shiny-to-translucent white, usually about a cm across, and contain clear-to-black volcanic glass.
Aren't those found in clusters usually? Odd that this "flower" object is a solitary feature.
Looks like teeth. do do do do
Why won't they show the walmart just off screen to the right?
I've seen similar minerals, even collected a few, but now I can't remember the name, something(mineral name) "rose" I think
some form of calcite, perhaps?