[meteorite-list] Full-Circle Vista from NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Shows 'Murray Buttes'

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6595

Full-Circle Vista from NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Shows 'Murray Buttes'
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
August 19, 2016

[Animation]
This 360-degree vista was acquired on Aug. 5, 2016, by the Mastcam on 
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover as the rover neared features called "Murray 
Buttes" on lower Mount Sharp. The dark, flat-topped mesa seen to the left 
of the rover's arm is about 50 feet high and, near the top, about 200 
feet wide.

Eroded mesas and buttes reminiscent of the U.S. Southwest shape part of 
the horizon in the latest 360-degree color panorama from NASA's Curiosity 
Mars rover.

The rover used its Mast Camera (Mastcam) to capture dozens of component 
images of this scene on Aug. 5, 2016, four years after Curiosity's landing 
inside Gale Crater.

The visual drama of Murray Buttes along Curiosity's planned route up lower 
Mount Sharp was anticipated when the site was informally named nearly 
three years ago to honor Caltech planetary scientist Bruce Murray (1931-2013), 
a former director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. 
JPL manages the Curiosity mission for NASA.

The buttes and mesas are capped with rock that is relatively resistant 
to wind erosion. This helps preserve these monumental remnants of a layer 
that formerly more fully covered the underlying layer that the rover is 
now driving on.

Early in its mission on Mars, Curiosity accomplished its main goal when 
it found and examined an ancient habitable environment. In an extended 
mission, the rover is examining successively younger layers as it climbs 
the lower part of Mount Sharp. A key goal is to learn how freshwater lake 
conditions, which would have been favorable for microbes billions of years 
ago if Mars has ever had life, evolved into harsher, arid conditions much 
less suited to supporting life. The mission is also monitoring the modern 
environment of Mars.

These findings have been addressing high-priority goals for planetary 
science and further aid NASA's preparations for a human mission to the 
Red Planet.

For more information about Curiosity, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/msl

http://mars.nasa.gov/msl

News Media Contact
Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov / laura.l.cantillo at nasa.gov

2016-213