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Following up on NASA’s Curiosity Rover landing on Mars on Sunday, the Martian robot has beamed back its first color photo of the landscape.
The photograph shows “the north wall and rim of Gale Crater” (Curiosity’s new home), according to NASA.
It was shot using the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI)—one of the seventeen cameras that Curiosity is equipped with—that shoots color photographs at 1600x1200 pixels, and a focal length of 18.3mm-21.3mm.
The MAHLI camera’s main purpose is to acquire “close-up, high-resolution views of rocks and soil at the rover’s Gale Crater field site”, NASA wrote.
NASA also added that the image is murky as the MAHLI’s removable dust cover is coated with dust—during the rover’s descent, dust was blown onto the camera.
The cover is expected to be removed in the coming weeks to provide a clearer view of Mars.
[via NASA]