The outstanding digital image processing techniques of the Dutchman Kees Venbos have been demonstrated at National Geographic and on the NASA website. He processed the images using the Terragen landscape modeling program. He has been working with various versions of this program since 1999. Most of the photographs were obtained by digitally modeling the heights of NASA imagery from various satellites such as the Mars Global Surveyor. He took a lot of photos for National Geographic, not only of Mars, but also of the good old Earth and other planets of the solar system and exoplanets of other systems. We have compiled a collection of his most picturesque and fantastic photographs of Mars.
1. South end of Holden crater. The rocky mountains obscure the sun, which breaks through the clouds to form a star shape.
2. Gusev crater in ancient times. The place where the robotic rover Spirit MER2003 landed. There was a sandstorm recently.
3. Mariner Valley. Mariner Valley after a dust storm, view of the valley from the Koprat Canyon (foreground).
4. Noachian epoch on Mars. This is what Mars looked like about 4 billion years ago. The northern fault is filled with water, the big lake below is Meridiani. The Opportunity rover has detected the presence of this inland sea. Photo taken for the July issue of National Geo. for 2005.
5. Plain of Argyre. Conceptual image for National Geographic: Mars during its loss of water billions of years ago. Salt deposits, mud cracks, hematite formation, dust swirls and falling meteors.
6. Maraldi crater on icy Mars. Made for the cover of the January 2004 issue of National Geographic.
7. The southern part of the Chrysian plain. Ancient view of the southern region of the Chrys Valley, surrounded by the Ares and Mariner valleys.
8. The North Pole of Mars and the North Rift. The North Pole (left) and the North Rift. The large crater at the top is the Korolev crater, which is 85 km in diameter.
9. A cave located on the northern slope of the Martian crater Gale. View of a cave on the northern slope of Gale Crater. The cone of Gale crater is on the left.
10. Dawn on Mount Elysius. The image was made for an exhibition at the Madrid Planetarium, which was dedicated to Mars. On the left is the Hekate Dome volcano, on the right is the Albor Dome.
11. Landing site of the robocar-mars rover Spirit. A fragment of the Gusev crater (Husband Hill is in the background). Ancient Mars, fumaroles, hot water sediments.
12. This is what Mars looked like during the ice age.
13. Dawn on Mount Olympus. Dawn in the morning mist on the Tharsis plateau. Mount Olympus is visible from the area of Lycus Sulci.
14. Mariner Valley. Foggy morning on the slope of one of the eroded mountains of the Mariner Valley.
15. Schiaparelli crater. The light of the low-lying sun does not reach the western edge. The diameter of the crater Schiaparelli is 450 kilometers (280 miles).
16. Crater Orcus Patera at sunset. The crater Orcus Patera, an unusual oval shape, was formed due to a meteorite that slightly touched Mars.
17. Southern edge of Gale crater. A strange cloud over the ravine that leads to Gale Crater. The crater cone can be seen just below the sun. View to the northeast.
18. Gale crater. Sunset over the Cimmeria region. View of Gale Crater from the Aeolian Plateau.
19. Landing site of the robocar-mars rover Spirit. This is how Gusev looked like in the Noachian era. Another conceptual work, where there is more water and fumaroles.
20. Melas fault at dawn. Mars rover landing site #2. Melas fault.
21. Mars Today. This image was featured alongside the Noachian era image (below) in the July 2005 issue of National Geographic Magazine.
22. Mars, if it were Earth, is the Kasei valley. Kasei Valley and Chris Valley. Below is a passage to the Mariner Valley. Against the backdrop of nebulae and stars.
23. Phoenix landing site. On the right is the edge of the Heimdall crater.
24. North Pole and North Fault. On the left is one of the large craters, the Korolev crater (about 85 km in diameter).
25. Fault Ius Chasma (Mariner Valley). Ius Chasma (western part of the Mariner Valley) with dust and fog.
26. Tharsis Mountains. Mountains Arsia, Pavlina and Askriyskaya. View from southwest to northeast. To the left - the crater Byblis (left) and the crater Ulysses.
27. Mount Olympus in antiquity. This is what Mount Olympus might have looked like about 4 billion years ago. There is water and a denser atmosphere. The photograph was taken for an exhibition at the Madrid Planetarium.
28. Mount Arsia. Mount Arsia reaches a height of more than 20 km, its diameter is 450 km, the diameter of the caldera is over 120 km.
29. Dome of Tharsis. The dome of Tharsis was photographed upside down during a sandstorm. The Tharsis volcanoes rise above the sandstorm zone.
While a person is just preparing to land on Mars, automatic stations are working with might and main on the surface of the Red Planet, and artificial satellites are flying in its orbit, compiling a detailed map of the surface of the fourth planet from the Sun. We present a selection of the 10 best images of Mars and its surface, which make a distant planet a little closer.
A photograph of the surface of Mars along with the Mariner Valley, a giant system of canyons that formed during the formation of the planet. To get one single image, scientists had to put together more than 100 individual images transmitted to Earth by the Viking 2 spacecraft.
Impact crater Victoria, about 800 meters in diameter, was photographed by the Opportunity rover on October 16, 2006. Sending such a high-quality image to Earth is not an easy task. It took three whole weeks to get all the constituent parts of this image.
The largest impact crater on Mars with a diameter of 22 kilometers is called Endeavour. He was photographed by the same tireless "Opportunity" on March 9, 2012.
The color of these Martian sand dunes resembles the waves on the surface of the earth's sea. Sand dunes form on Mars in the same way as on Earth - under the influence of wind, moving several meters a year. The picture was taken by the rover Curiosity November 27, 2015.
This image of a small impact crater, taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows just how much ice can be lurking beneath the surface of Mars. A meteorite that fell to the surface of the planet was able to break through the surface layer and expose a large amount of frozen water. Perhaps billions of years ago, seas and oceans were indeed located on the surface of Mars.
The famous "selfie" of the Curiosity rover, taken on January 19, 2016, near the Gale impact crater.
This is what a sunset looks like on Mars. The picture was taken by the Spirit apparatus on May 19, 2005. The bluish hue of the sky during sunset or sunrise on Mars is due to the same reasons why we see blue skies on Earth. Light waves of a certain length, corresponding to blue and blue light, scatter, colliding with gas and dust molecules, so we perceive the sky as blue. Only on Mars, where the atmosphere is much less dense, such an effect can be seen when light passes through the maximum thickness of the air - that is, at dawn or at sunset.
Wheel tracks of the Opportunity apparatus and a dusty whirlwind in the background. And although dusty swirls are quite common on Mars, catching one in the frame is a real stroke of luck.
It seems as if this photo was taken not 225 million kilometers from the Earth by the Curiosity apparatus, but somewhere in a desert area on our planet.
Images used: NASA
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On August 7, 2012, Curiosity, a complex 900-kilogram rover equipped with the latest technology, began working on the surface of Mars. In the future, Curiosity may become one of the most successful space missions: the scientific equipment on board is designed to study in detail the geological history of Mars and shed light on the question of life on this still mysterious planet. Despite the fact that the main work of the apparatus will end after 668 Martian days, in total Curiosity is capable of operating for at least 14 years
Typical Martian landscape during the day
Part of the Gale crater mosaic
Track from the Curiosity wheel on the sand of Mars
Sand, dust and stone called Burwash. The image was taken at a distance of 11.5 cm from the stone, the size of the image is 7.6 by 5.7 cm
A sandbank from which Curiosity took soil samples. On the left, we see a raw image of a dune, showing what it looks like on Mars, whose skies are often reddish due to the amount of dust. On the right, the image has been processed to show what the same area would look like on Earth. The size of the rounded stone above the center of the image is about 20 cm
"Blueberry" - small spherical inclusions in the Martian soil. The balls are about 3 mm in size, they contain a large amount of red iron ore, which is formed in the presence of water.
The picture shows the bottom of the apparatus, all six wheels and the tracks left by them. In the foreground are two pairs of black and white HAZCAM navigation cameras.
Curiosity has just climbed Rocknest Dune to take the first soil samples from the Red Planet. The picture was taken on October 3, 2012, on the 57th day of operation of the device
The MAHLI camera looks at the Curiosity wheel.
Morning on Mars
Dark gray Martian rock. The image was taken with a MAHLI camera from a distance of 27 cm. The image area is 16 by 12 cm, and the resolution is 105 microns per pixel. Despite its impressive clarity, scientists have not been able to resolve the granules or crystals that make up the stone.
The "pyramid" on Mars is a rock dubbed Jake Matijevic. The picture was taken on September 21, 2012.
Studying the "Pyramid" at close range. Chemical analysis of the stone showed that it is rich in alkali metals, as well as halogens - chlorine and bromine. Judging by the spectrum, this stone is a mosaic of individual grains of minerals, including pyroxene, feldspar and olivine. In general, the composition of the stone is very atypical for Martian stones.
Color image of the "pyramid" on Mars. The image has been white-balanced to reveal differences in inclusions on the stone.
On the 55th day of stay on Mars. The focus of Curiosity is a sandy deposit called Rocknest, from the slope of which the rover took the first soil samples.
Remains of an ancient stream bed on Mars. The fact that water once flowed in this place is evidenced by many pieces of gravel and stone, which have a smooth rounded shape. In addition, the size of some of these pebbles suggests that they could only be carried by a stream of water. The rock, chipped like a broken pavement, is of sedimentary origin.
Looking back on the path
Evening on Mars. The picture was taken on day 49 of Curiosity.
The Martian rock, named Et-Then by scientists. The picture was taken by the MAHLI (Mars Hand Lens Imager) camera on October 29, 2012, on the 82nd day of Curiosity's stay on the Red Planet. The rock was photographed from a distance of 40 cm, the width of the image is only 25 cm. Et-Zen was found near the left front wheel of the device when Curiosity was preparing to take soil samples at Rocknest
Stones on Mars. Mosaic taken by the MAHLI camera on the 76th day of Curiosity's stay on the Mysterious Planet
© © NASA photo
People love mysterious space stories. And at the top of cosmic curiosity are traditionally mysterious objects on Mars. There, rock formations turn into faces, shadows into UFO landing sites, and pieces from the rover into the head of Donald Trump.
6. "The fish of my dreams."
There is a fish rock on Mars, but there are no fish. Curiosity caught this "catch" in the lens of his camera, and ufologists and supporters of the theory of the existence of the Martians were delighted. But this is just a game of stone shapes and lighting. NASA says this about possible fossilized bones and animals on Mars: "Mars probably never had enough oxygen in the atmosphere to support complex organisms."
7. Whirlwind.
A strange vortex appears in this Martian landscape taken by another NASA rover, Opportunity, in 2016. This is actually a real dust whirlwind, just like on Earth. Only Martian dust whirlwinds can be up to 50 times wider and up to 10 times taller than those on Earth.
8. Donut.
It wasn't, but then it was. The donut-like object appeared rather unexpectedly in a series of before-and-after images of Opportunity. Some people thought it was an alien formation, but NASA announced that the sudden appearance of the "doughnut" was because Opportunity knocked the rock out by driving over it. In general, there is no fast food on Mars.
9. Wafer.
The donut is not the only "food" formation on the red planet. An image from the orbit of Mars in late 2014 showed a strange waffle-shaped island. The 1.2-mile waffle is located in a lava flow region. This is not evidence of giant waffles on Mars, but it does look very much like a lava formation.
10. Glitter.
If something shines somewhere, it already attracts attention. If something glitters on Mars, these are mysterious signals. In 2012, Curiosity spotted a bright, shiny object in the faded Martian soil. To give you a sense of scale, the entire image covers an area of just 4 centimeters across. NASA scientists have confirmed that this shine is just some kind of quartz or something like that.
11. Spoon.
See the spoon in the center of the image? A long arm stretched out over the landscape, casting a shadow below? Is this proof that some giant chef is using this tool to make the donuts and waffles mentioned above? Unfortunately no. Mars does not have the same strong gravity as Earth, so these fragile rock formations can exist for a long time without collapsing under their own weight.
12. Metal construction.
Mars seekers edited an image taken by Curiosity in early 2013 to emphasize what appeared to be a piece of metal. The likely explanation is much less impressive than a metal racing ship or an iron monster. The object is likely part of a meteorite or the result of a play of light.
13. Bright light on the horizon of Mars.
The same Curiosity sent this curious photo in 2014 showing a light on the horizon of Mars. The image excited UFO fans, who speculated that it could be evidence of alien activity.
NASA, as scientists usually do, disappointed them, explaining that all the pictures with the mysterious "lighthouse" were taken by one camera. Other lenses did not reflect this point. It is possible that a cosmic particle hit the camera matrix, as a result of which part of the sensor was “blinded”, and a white spot appeared on the pictures.
14. Mini meteorite.
In October 2016, Curiosity discovered a small iron meteorite that was initially thought to be a strange rock. The stone looks small, about the size of a palm, but a close-up showed its bizarre surface. The researchers called it "stone egg" and were wrong.
A camera for micro-imaging (ChemCam: Remote Micro-Imager), which is equipped with the rover, was directed at the egg. And determined the approximate composition. According to scientists from the University of Arizona (Arizona State University), the egg consists of an alloy of nickel and iron.
15. A strange deep hole.
NASA hasn't given a definitive answer about this strange circular pit, captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2017. But, most likely, this is a crater formed due to a meteorite impact. The pit is located in the region of the south pole of the planet. At the end of summer, due to the short daylight hours, the hole stands out sharply from the surrounding landscape due to the play of light and shadow.
16. Female statue?
The Spirit rover took this image in 2007 showing a view of the rock formations on the surface of Mars. One of them stood out. It looked like Bigfoot. And female.
17. Another woman on Mars.
As you already understood, there is no shortage of women on Mars. That is, at least two of them. This image from Curiosity excited alien theorists in early 2015. The small object inside the red circle looks like a figurine of a lady in a dress. All it takes to see it is a developed imagination.
18. Crab monster crawls on Mars.
Another Curiosity photo from July 2015. It went unnoticed for a long time until a tiny fragment of the image was enlarged in one Facebook group. And there appeared what looked like a strange crab monster lurking in the shadows. He also looks a lot like Cthulhu. In any case, those who saw Cthulhu say so. And these once again will not lie.
Of course, a crab on Mars is just a play of light and shadow on a rock. But it's so boring...
19. The face of an ancient god.
On the left is a cropped image from the Opportunity rover. On the right is a neo-Assyrian statue of the goddess from the British Museum. Notice the similarities? And some UFO fans too. As with all mysteries of Mars that look like objects from Earth, this is a combination of human imagination and the play of light, and not hello from an extraterrestrial civilization with a penchant for stone carving.
20. Kissing face.
As you already know, there are a lot of women on Mars. Therefore, this man, who stretched out his lips in a kind of kiss, does not look random either. This stone was found in a photo with Curiosity by fans of the habitable Mars theory at the end of 2016.
21. How to find a "face" on Mars.
In a short time and with a minimum of effort, anyone can find rock formations that look like human or alien faces on Mars. Here are two "faces" with their features. This image is from Curiosity, who took this landscape in late 2016.
All it takes is imagination to harness the power of pareidolia, a phenomenon that causes people to see faces and shapes in inanimate objects.
August 6, 2012 back Curiosity rover after an eight-month journey. The device covered 567 million kilometers on its way to the Red Planet.
During this time, the Curiosity rover made discoveries that indicate the existence of favorable conditions for the life of microbes billions of years ago, made countless works with various tools, drilled, fired a laser, photographed, sent 468,926 images to Earth.
Images from the Curiosity rover and news from the Red Planet over the past few years.
2. From a distance, the surface of Mars looks reddish-red due to the red dust that is contained in the atmosphere. Close up, the color is yellowish-brown with an admixture of golden, brown, reddish-brown and even green, depending on the color of the planet's minerals. In ancient times, people easily distinguished Mars from other planets, and also associated it with war and composed all kinds of legends. The Egyptians called Mars "Har Decher" which means "red". (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):
3. The Curiosity rover loves to take selfies. How does he do it, because there is no one to remove him from the outside?
The rover has four color cameras, all of them differ in a different set of optics, but only one of them is suitable for. The automatic arm called MAHLI has 5 degrees of freedom, which gives the camera considerable flexibility and allows it to “fly around” the Martian rover from all sides. The movement of this hand-camera is controlled by a specialist from the Earth. The main task is to follow a certain sequence of movement of the automatic arm so that the camera can take a sufficient number of shots for the subsequent panorama stitching. The scenario for the preparation of each such selfie is first worked out on Earth on a special test module, which is called Maggie. (Photo by NASA):
4. Martian sunset, April 15, 2015. At noon, the sky of Mars is yellow-orange. The reason for such differences from the color scale of the earth's sky is the properties of the thin, rarefied atmosphere of Mars containing suspended dust. On Mars, Rayleigh scattering of rays (which on Earth is the cause of the blue color of the sky) plays a minor role, its effect is weak, but it appears as a blue glow at sunrise and sunset, when the light passes through a thicker layer of air. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | Texas A&M Univ via Getty | NASA):
5. The wheels of the rover September 9, 2012. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | Malin Space Science Systems | NASA):
6. And this is a snapshot of April 18, 2016. You can see how the “shoes” of the hard worker have worn out. From August 2012 to January last year, the Curiosity rover traveled 15.26 km. (Photo by JPL-Caltech MSSS | NASA):
7. We continue to look at the pictures of the Curiosity rover. The Namib Dune is an area of dark sand made up of dunes northwest of Mount Sharp. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | NASA):
8. Two-thirds of the surface of Mars is occupied by light areas, called continents, about a third - by dark areas, called seas. And this is the foot of Mount Sharp.
Sharp is a Martian mountain located in Gale Crater. The height of the mountain is about 5 kilometers. On Mars, there is also the highest mountain in the solar system - the extinct volcano Olympus 26 km high. The diameter of Olympus is about 540 km. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):
9. Photo from the orbiter, here the rover is visible. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | Univ. of Arizona | NASA):
10. How did this unusual Ireson Hill on Mars form? His story has become the subject of research. Its shape and two-tone structure make it one of the most unusual hills that an automated rover has driven around. It reaches a height of about 5 meters, and the size of its base is about 15 meters. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA0:
11. This is how the “traces” of the rover on Mars look like. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | NASA):
12. The hemispheres of Mars are quite different in the nature of the surface. In the southern hemisphere, the surface is 1-2 km above the average level and is densely dotted with craters. This part of Mars resembles the lunar continents. In the north, most of the surface is below average, there are few craters and the main part is occupied by relatively smooth plains, probably formed as a result of lava flooding and erosion. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):
13. Another masterful selfie. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):
14. In the foreground, about three kilometers from the rover, is a long ridge teeming with iron oxide. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):
15. A look at the path that the rover has taken, February 9, 2014. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):
16. The hole drilled by the Curiosity rover. This rock color under the red surface is not immediately obvious. The drill of the rover is capable of making holes in the stone with a diameter of 1.6 cm and a depth of 5 cm. Samples mined by the manipulator can also be examined by the SAM and CheMin instruments located in front of the rover body. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):
17. Another selfie, the most recent, taken on January 23, 2018. (Photo by NASA | JPL-Caltech | MSSS):
