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Press Release Images: Spirit
29-Oct-2004
NASA's Mars Rovers Pass the 50,000-Picture Mark
Full Press Release
Rovers Exceed 50,000 Images
Rovers Exceed 50,000 Images

This frame from Spirit's panoramic camera is the 50,000th image from NASA's pair of Mars Exploration Rovers. It shows the camera's calibration target, the most photographed subject on Mars, with a glimpse past it to rocks and soil at the location in the "Columbia Hills" where Spirit was examining soil during its 260th martian day, or sol (Sept. 25, 2004). The outer circle of the calibration target is 8 centimeters (3.15 inches) in diameter. The target includes reference colors and a shadow-casting post. Most days when the panoramic camera is used, it takes a series of images of the calibration target through different filters to aid in accurate interpretation of the other images it takes. This frame was taken by the left eye of the camera's stereo pair, through a red-orange filter admitting light with wavelengths centered at 600 nanometers.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell
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'Wooly Patch' Rock in Color Stereo
'Wooly Patch' Rock in Color Stereo

Image processing experts at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory created this color stereo view of a rock studied by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit in July. The process of creating the image in color is similar to combining two slightly offset black-and-white images except that the colors corresponding to the two images are separated into offset right-eye and left-eye views. For comparison, the two-dimensional (non-stereo) image representing the panoramic-camera team's best attempt at generating a "true color" view of what this rock would look like if seen by a human on Mars was posted on the Web on July 30, 2004 http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040730a.html . The color image was generated from a mathematical combination of six calibrated images acquired through filters for wavelengths between 430 nanometers and 750 nanometers.

This image shows two holes created by Spirit's rock abrasion tool in a rock dubbed "Wooly Patch" near the base of the "Columbia Hills" inside Gusev Crater. The rover took the images with its panoramic camera on its 200th martian day, or sol (July 25, 2004). Scientists speculate that this relatively soft rock may have been altered by water; small cracks may be the result of interaction with water-rich fluids.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell
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