PIA20843: Butte 'M9a' in 'Murray Buttes' on Mars
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
 Spacecraft:  Curiosity
 Instrument:  Mastcam
 Product Size:  10000 x 5027 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  Malin Space Science Systems
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA20843.tif (122 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA20843.jpg (6.811 MB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

The top of the butte in this scene from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover stands about 16 feet (about 5 meters) above the rover and about 82 feet (about 25 meters) east-southeast of the rover.

Mastcam's right-eye (telephoto-lens) camera took the component images of this mosaic on Sept. 1, 2016, during the 1,448th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars.

The site is in the scenic "Murray Buttes" area, where individual buttes and mesas were assigned numbers. This one is "M9a." The average slope on the prominent ridge on the left side is more than 40 degrees, while the average slope on the right side of the highest point is about 30 degrees.

The rover's location when it recorded this scene was the site it reached in its Sol 1446 drive. (See map at http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=8009.)

The scene is presented with a color adjustment that approximates white balancing, to resemble how the rocks and sand would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth.

Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates Mastcam. JPL, a division of Caltech, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, and built the project's Curiosity rover. For more information about Curiosity, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl.

For more information about Curiosity, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Image Addition Date:
2016-10-03