The real colours of Mars

I've been stitching some raw Curiosity images into panoramas and mosaics lately, and decided to make this view from the famous "self-portrait". It shows the rover's mast with its cameras, the martian landscape, and plenty of sky:



Full-sized image: www.pictureshack.us...

Occasionally, people bring up the topic of the real colours of Mars, alledging that NASA are lying to us about them and that Mars isn't really red. I think this image gives a good impression of the real colours; it was taken with a digital camera that uses the same type of the bayer filter as consumer and professional cameras here on Earth. The image is raw, and I haven't done any adjustments to it.

So, what do we see here? Not a dramatic red landscape like some pictures of Mars depict. But neither is Mars green with a blue sky like on Earth. Instead we see a gentle-light-brown surface and a dust-laden sky. The surface is covered with a thin layer of hematite-rich (Iron oxide) dust, which gives it the reddish hue. The sky on Mars is similar in appearance to the sky on Earth during a dust storm. Martian colours are often described as butterscotch - yellow with orange or brown hues.

en.wikipedia.org...

By the way, if the martian sky were free of dust, it still wouldn't be blue; the martian atmosphere is so thin, the sky would be almost black, like it is on Earth when you get to top of stratosphere.

reply to post by wildespace


i would suggest that looking at mars directly using a pair of very good binoculars , or just about any but the cheapest of telescopes - the real colour of mars is pretty obvious

reply to post by wildespace

By the way, if the martian sky were free of dust, it still wouldn't be blue; the martian atmosphere is so thin, the sky would be almost black, like it is on Earth when you get to top of stratosphere

Even NASA has published pictures of Mars with brown terrain and a blue sky.

reply to post by wildespace


those colors are still washed out...so although it may be raw, the colors seem to be still off a bit....in particular the muted orange colors for the wiring...on line they seem to be more vibrant/brighter...

Link

Looking at the screws and some other metallic pieces it appears to be brighter than was it represented in the picture...

Originally posted by Berzerked
reply to post by wildespace

 

By the way, if the martian sky were free of dust, it still wouldn't be blue; the martian atmosphere is so thin, the sky would be almost black, like it is on Earth when you get to top of stratosphere

Even NASA has published pictures of Mars with brown terrain and a blue sky.

...and they added that the image has been white-balanced, which shifts colours to simulate lighting conditions on Earth. You can find the raw versions of those images and see that the sky isn't really blue. www.slate.com...

Originally posted by chrismarco
reply to post by wildespace

 

those colors are still washed out...so although it may be raw, the colors seem to be still off a bit....in particular the muted orange colors for the wiring...on line they seem to be more vibrant/brighter...

Link

Looking at the screws and some other metallic pieces it appears to be brighter than was it represented in the picture...

edit on 15-5-2013 by chrismarco because: (no reason given)

On the image in your link isn't Curiosity itself, it's the "twin" used to test or rehearse Curiosity's movements. By the looks of it, the wiring on the "twin" lacks the protective tape, hence the brighter colours. Also note that it lacks the isotope power supply, and differs in many other things to the real rover on Mars.

That said, I think we can expect some washing-out of colours on Mars, due to the dusty atmosphere.

Wasn't there some lunatic here on ATS years and years ago who tried to claim that Mars was in fact lush and green and the reason why we thought it was red was because of Government holograms or something?

reply to post by AngryCymraeg


More than one. There's a 'popular' website devoted to it.