Photo of Curiosity's ultimate destination

[pokerfan]

Wow — what a view! This image, released today, is a high-resolution shot of the Curiosity rover’s ultimate goal: the stratified flanks of Gale Crater’s 3.4-mile (5.5-km) high central peak, Mount Sharp. The image was taken with Curiosity’s 100mm telephoto Mastcam as a calibration test… if views like this are what we can expect from the MSL mission, all I can say is (and I’ve said it before) GO CURIOSITY!

“This is an area on Mount Sharp where Curiosity will go,” said Mastcam principal investigator Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems. “Those layers are our ultimate objective. The dark dune field is between us and those layers. In front of the dark sand you see redder sand, with a different composition suggested by its different color. The rocks in the foreground show diversity — some rounded, some angular, with different histories. This is a very rich geological site to look at and eventually to drive through.”

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/97096/curiosity-sends-back-incredible-hi-res-views-of-mt-sharp/#ixzz24oZOKcXd

[lob1]

1. Hey, I recognize that place. It's just outside of Vegas.

[longship]

2. I thought it was outside Needles, CA. nt

.

[Art_from_Ark]

5. Four Corners area?

Western Utah? Southern Idaho?

[HubertHeaver]

3. DON'T TELL ANYONE!!111!!!11

That's super-top-secret stuff.......Area 51 and all

[chknltl]

4. How wonderful! That stratified peak is over 3 miles high too!

W.O.W. it boggles the mind! This is starting to shape up as a much watch best mission ever! It is time to kick the tires and light the fires!

[pokerfan]

8. I listened to the presser yesterday

They said that they could get there in 100 days if they drove directly but since they will be stopping along the way (to do science) it's going to be closer to two years.

[chknltl]

10. A journey i will watch in awe!

I have said this many many times over the years: I LOVE LIVING IN THE FUTURE! For any of my fellow DUers who take this era of technology for granted... should you live past 50, (and of course I hope you do) take a look around. I hope the world holds as much technological amazement for you as it does for me right now!

I have lived long enough to have gazed at Mars, on a small rectangular box that is a scant six inches long by maybe three wide by a half inch thick with a screen on it that I can communicate to people anywhere in this planet with!

This is a future that was beyond my imagination fifty years ago when I was seven or eight years old reading novels by Arther C. Clark; Andre Norton; Robert Heinlein; Ray Bradburry; and of course Isaac Asimov.

This future I live in contains unimaginable nightmares, of this there can be no doubt but this future contains wonders that frankly are just awesome. That new Rover up on Mars and what it may find and THOSE HI RES PHOTOS!!! OMG! I could not be more blown away!

[deutsey]

6. That is amazing

Thanks for posting.

[Odin2005]

7. That looks like The Dry Valleys of Antactica!

[Posteritatis]

9. Here's the original version, closer to true color: