Curiosity's Rear View, Linearized

This is a version of one of the first images taken by a rear Hazard-Avoidance camera on NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT). It was taken through a "fisheye" wide-angle lens but has been "linearized" so that the horizon looks flat rather than curved. The image has also been cropped. The fisheye version is available at PIA15973. It is one-half of full resolution.

Part of the rim of Gale Crater, which is a feature the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined, stretches from the top middle to the top right of the image. One of the rover's wheels can be seen at bottom right. As planned, the rover's early engineering images are low resolution.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech