NASA releases clearest view of Mars ever that shows blue rocks littering the Martian landscape

Daily Mail ^ | 7 October 2024 | Matthew Phelan

[mairdie]

I have a mental block about geography so, when I worked at Chicago's Adler Planetarium, I used to have to give my hallway lecture on the Rand-McNally earth globe on geology. Remember my geology prof telling us that the sap rising in the trees in the spring could affect the rotational speed of the earth a teeny, tiny amount. The things we remember after 60 years.

[Red Badger]

Smurf Eggs........

[Nervous Tick]

>> Smurf Eggs........

Pop Rocks! Don’t get ‘em wet, all hell will break loose!

[mairdie]

That made the most wondrously amazing mental image. Loved it!

[Getready]

Only 2 mega pixel camera? Perseverance landed 2021.....had a 5 megapixel 3D camera on my cell phone back in 2017 or so...

Reporter anachronistically using the term “footage” to describe digital data.....very few use film anymore... cannot describe the image record as footage...as in feet of film utilized....

[equaviator]

“using the term “footage” to describe digital data...”

...is like saying “In case of an emergency, dial 9-1-1”.

[BigFreakinToad]

awesome picture

[jerod]

You say blue... I say black.

[telescope115]

It’s been a lot of years since I’ve been able to visit Adler. Great place!

[mairdie]

Ground and polished my 6” f/8 there when I was 16. Was almost done with it when the blinkety guys decided to surprise me for my birthday by finishing the polishing for me and presented it in a baby blue tube, with a cigar box of eyepieces finished in dark blue velvet. It was such a lovely thought but...

[John Milner]

I thought Mars was the red planet.

Damn blue libs invading everywhere!

[mairdie]

Clapping!

[telescope115]

That was a nice thing they did, but, you wanted to finish it yourself?

[NorthMountain]

For technical/scientific imaging, pixel count is the least important feature of a camera.

Resolving power of the system, sensitivity and dynamic range of the detector, and low electronic noise are far more important features. In all those metrics, the cameras on the Perseverance rover make your cell-phone camera look like the child’s toy that it is. And that’s not an “insult”, it’s just a technical comparison of the two systems designed for VERY different missions.

[NorthMountain]

I once had to tell a well-intentioned person very close to me: “Do me a favor: stop doing me favors.”

[mairdie]

Of course! I worked my way from carburundum to that stage where you use rouge until you can change the surface in one movement of the upper disk, the parabola is SOOO delicate to get, and they didn’t let me have the satisfaction of that last move. I was engaged to the optics instructor just before turning 17, so those last moves must have been frustrating for him to watch.

[RinaseaofDs]

Or the term ‘fossil-fuel’, which is just inaccurate and always has been inaccurate.

[SunkenCiv]

The market among Earthbound rock collectors for Martian stones will be enormous. :^)

https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4266866/posts

[Albion Wilde]

blue rocks... Democrats have conquered it already?

[mairdie]

Red dirt, white and blue rocks. Clearly an American planet.