A Martian Rock Called ‘Rocknest 3’

This view of a Martian rock called "Rocknest 3" combines four images taken by the right-eye camera of the Mast Camera (Mastcam) instrument, which has a telephoto, 100-millimeter-focal-length lens. The component images were taken a few minutes after Martian noon on the 59th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's operations on Mars (evening of Oct. 5, 2012, PDT).

Rocknest 3 is a rock approximately 15 inches (40 centimeters) long and 4 inches (10 centimeters) tall, next to the "Rocknest" patch of windblown dust and sand where Curiosity scooped and analyzed soil samples. The Mastcam was about 13 feet (4 meters) from the rock when the component images were taken, providing an image scale of about 0.01 inch (0.3 millimeter) per pixel.

The image has been white-balanced to show what the rock would look like if it were on Earth. A raw-color version of the image shows what the rock looks like on Mars to the camera. An annotated version indicates the portion of Rocknest 3 covered in Sol 57 imaging by Curiosity's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument.