Martian mountaintop
Click for full image.
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on September 21, 2021 by Curiosity’s high resolution mast camera, and shows the top of that spectacular rock outcrop about 200 feet to the west of where the rover presently sits. The top image, from my September 16, 2021 post, “Curiosity: Into the Mountains!”, indicates the location of the photo with the black rectangle. The red dotted line indicates the rover’s future planned route.
I estimate the whole outcrop is about 100 feet high, which means the cliff section seen in the photo to the right is probably about 30 feet high. It would make a great challenge for any number of rock climbers I know.
What makes this image especially striking are the overhanging rocks at the peak’s top. In the Martian gravity, about one third that of Earth’s, it is possible for much more delicate rock shapes to remain structurally stable, and the sharp jagged boulders hanging out at the top of this cliff demonstrate that in a quite breath-taking way. On Earth such delicate rocks would likely have quickly fallen.
The Curiosity science team is obviously most interested in the massive layers revealed by this cliff. I am also sure they are also as enthralled by the scenery as I am.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Click for full image.
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on September 21, 2021 by Curiosity’s high resolution mast camera, and shows the top of that spectacular rock outcrop about 200 feet to the west of where the rover presently sits. The top image, from my September 16, 2021 post, “Curiosity: Into the Mountains!”, indicates the location of the photo with the black rectangle. The red dotted line indicates the rover’s future planned route.
I estimate the whole outcrop is about 100 feet high, which means the cliff section seen in the photo to the right is probably about 30 feet high. It would make a great challenge for any number of rock climbers I know.
What makes this image especially striking are the overhanging rocks at the peak’s top. In the Martian gravity, about one third that of Earth’s, it is possible for much more delicate rock shapes to remain structurally stable, and the sharp jagged boulders hanging out at the top of this cliff demonstrate that in a quite breath-taking way. On Earth such delicate rocks would likely have quickly fallen.
The Curiosity science team is obviously most interested in the massive layers revealed by this cliff. I am also sure they are also as enthralled by the scenery as I am.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
What will certain individuals in the “science” / professional / media space interpreters world make of that claw!?
Or is it the head of a Martian monument to a snake God?
Another angle of that mountain top.
https://giphy.com/gifs/meg-griffin-JR9L6EEiqdIKQ
Looks like a bear taking a leap from the closer ledge.
Don’t they edit that stuff out anymore?
It reminds me of the scenery in Westerns – when they (and everything else) were in black and white.
It really doesn’t look that not-eroded. There are some sharp planes, but there are also rounded/smoothed areas.