Night shift Curiosity
Since last week, the well-known Curiosity rover began to earn extra money on the night shift. On January 22, on one of the Martian nights, he used one of his seventeen ( MAHLI ) cameras using ultraviolet radiation to study the Sayunei elevation in the Yellowknife Bay depression (where he has been located since December 2012) in Crater Gale area. This study is the main part of the two-year mission of the rover on the red planet, where life may have existed or still exists. Sayunei is one of the sites where the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is about to start another drilling of the Martian rock over the next few weeks. In this area of Mars, one of the “hands” with white and ultraviolet LED backlights was first used. Images from this area of the planet were obtained on Earth on January 23.
One of the first shots of the Martian breed from the MAHLI camera after dark on its 165th sol on the planet in white light LED backlighting, the image covers an area of 3.4 by 2.5 centimeters. Lighting comes from one pair of LED sources. This allowed us to sharpen surface shadows and texturing details.(full size images are available by click) : Frame with MAHLI in ultraviolet:
According to MSSS Principal Researcher Ken Edgett:
NASA's Martian Science Lab uses Curiosity to examine Gale Crater for favorable microbial conditions. More complete information on the research project is available on the following resources: nasa.gov/msl and mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .
According to information from NASA
One of the first shots of the Martian breed from the MAHLI camera after dark on its 165th sol on the planet in white light LED backlighting, the image covers an area of 3.4 by 2.5 centimeters. Lighting comes from one pair of LED sources. This allowed us to sharpen surface shadows and texturing details.(full size images are available by click) : Frame with MAHLI in ultraviolet:
According to MSSS Principal Researcher Ken Edgett:
The purpose of these observations in ultraviolet light was to search for luminescent rocks. The data has just arrived this morning and our research team is still analyzing the information received. If something looked green, yellow, orange or red, then this would be a clear sign of fluorescence.
NASA's Martian Science Lab uses Curiosity to examine Gale Crater for favorable microbial conditions. More complete information on the research project is available on the following resources: nasa.gov/msl and mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .
According to information from NASA