The surface of Mars in fake color

Originally posted by DragonFire1024
reply to post by Praetorius

 

Then why alter the colors? So far, out of all the attacking on this thread, there has been no real explanation or logical answer as to WHY.

Good question, admittedly.

If it is actually occurring - I don't have the background at this point to honestly argue either way - I'd say it might possibly be a result of inconsistent re-coloring or color correction stemming from issues with the equipment they use for the photos, the means of data transmission or storage, etc., not allowing a true-color image to actually be captured or transmitted in the first place.

I definitely have some willingness to believe there is a lot about Mars that is being covered up, and that some other pictures are modified or taken with selective capability, but I can't see any shady reason for merely changing the color.

That's really about all I have to offer up on this matter...there are definitely some neat videos of supposedly-restored true-color images of Mars on youtube, but I'd imagine they are likely to be considered as suspect by others as you feel these red images are.

Take care.

reply to post by Praetorius


Thank you for taking the time to post a decent answer.

Originally posted by DragonFire1024

Originally posted by Jefferton

Originally posted by DragonFire1024
reply to post by Praetorius

 

Then why alter the colors? So far, out of all the attacking on this thread, there has been no real explanation or logical answer as to WHY.

So far you have not proven they are altered. Just your opinion. That's why the conversation ends.

edit on 24-5-2012 by Jefferton because: (no reason given)

Are you blind? Or just refuse to actually read. If you can't tell they were altered from their original state, then yes you are correct. the conversation ends. I said it earlier. Show me a rover painted in rainbows and I will end this conversation now.

edit on 24-5-2012 by DragonFire1024 because: (no reason given)

reply to post by Jauk3


HA! Ok I seriously had a good laugh xD

Originally posted by DragonFire1024

Originally posted by wmd_2008
reply to post by DragonFire1024

 

What is true colour

Once you tells us what that is then we can say what NASA has or hasn't done

So let us all know.

Ever take a picture with a camera and done nothing to alter said image? There you go.

IF ONLY THAT WERE TRUE.

Look at test reports for cameras you will see subtle differences in colour between different manufacturers,
Or if you have a digital camera get someone to point an infrared tv remote while while you look at the screen, get them to press buttons and you will see the infrared light from the tv remote your eyes dont see that!

Our eyes are more sensitive to the green end of the spectrum due to the colour of the sun.

Many insects also see colours different to the way we see them.

So I will ask again what is true colour

reply to post by DragonFire1024


NASA rarely images things to see what colour they are. Most often, they image objects in whatever wavelengths will provide the most scientifically valuable information (for instance chemical composition). They then take many of these if they release them to the public and colourize them to give a decent approximation of "true colour." It's a matter of what benefits them most scientifically...remember, they're up there to study Mars, it's not a sight-seeing tour.

We can see the "true" color of Mars by use of the Calibration Targets.

See: www.highmars.org...

reply to post by CLPrime


Good answer. Thanks

Originally posted by Adaven
We can see the "true" color of Mars by use of the Calibration Targets.

See: www.highmars.org...

Interesting. Bookmarked that for later. I never knew this before. Star for you.

www.universetoday.com...

“We actually try to avoid the term ‘true color’ because nobody really knows precisely what the ‘truth’ is on Mars,” said Jim Bell, the lead scientist for the Pancam color imaging system on the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER). In fact, Bell pointed out, on Mars, as well as Earth, color changes all the time: whether it’s cloudy or clear, the sun is high or low, or if there are variations in how much dust is in the atmosphere. “Colors change from moment to moment. It’s a dynamic thing. We try not to draw the line that hard by saying ‘this is the truth!’”

Bell concluded, “What we’re doing on Mars is really just an estimate, it’s our best guess using our knowledge of the cameras with the calibration target. But whether it is absolutely 100% true, I think it’s going to take people going there to find that out.”

Also, as I've read before, scientists are almost sure that at sunrise, the sky is a pinkish red, during the day it is a brownish/yellow, and at sunset its more of a blueish color. It has to do with the composition of the atmosphere and scattering of light waves.

Originally posted by blackmetalmist
OP, I may be missing the point here, but what color are you suggesting Mars is then ?

There are a lot of people who would really, really like the sky on Mars to be blue, and the ground to be a bit less red, I suppose because they like Earth, and there's life here, and if Mars looks more like Earth it makes it easier to imagine that evil NASA is hiding the fact that there is life on Mars.

Never mind that a lot of the ground on Earth is really red, too, and the sky is not always blue, and that finding even the strong suggestion of life on Mars would mean tens of billions of tax dollars sent NASA's way.

It's funny, because as shown by the above telescope image, and by going outside and looking up in the sky with your very own eyes, you can kind of get a pretty good idea what color it mostly is. Kind of a dullish rust color. Not even as orange as Georgia or Tennessee.

reply to post by DragonFire1024

From that source:

The left PanCam has three filters that correspond to red, green and blue

www.highmars.org...

Yes, yes it does. And [if] a particular image is taken using those three filters a reasonable approximation of true color can be obtained. However, those three filters (L4, L5, and L6) are rarely used and as a result a true color image cannot be created because substituting a visible color for an invisible "color" (IR, UV) does not give you true color.
www.ominous-valve.com...

Originally posted by Jefferton
reply to post by DragonFire1024

 

You sound like a typical ats self proclaimed expert. Full of exuses lacking any real knowledge.

Ditto there buddy..

Tell us oh wise one...how do you know for a fact that any of those photos are photo manipulated?

Is it a theory or do you have hard proof that cannot be refuted?

If it is a theory...then please state it in OP.

Many years ago on a freebie DVD on the UK "Computer Shopper" magazine they had tons of extremely high-res panoramic images of the Martian surface. They were either black and white or properly colour-corrected images based on what we would expect to see within the Martian atmosphere. Every single colour photo looked like this shot posted on the first page:



I've tried Googling for the magazines archives and what not online but I'm having little luck, I have thousands of discs at my folks place still so there's a chance it's among them.

The reason I remember it is that I was really confused as to why all the other photos released in the press and on TV had this red cast to it.

Now forgive me just a second because I'd always considered this a given but: Earth appears blue through a telescope, our water is clear, the blue cast is to do with the light refraction through our atmosphere, this is the exact same reason that Mars appears Red, but in reality it's a Rusty/Desert colour throughout most of the surface, the light refraction makes it appear a far deeper red than it actually is on the surface right?

NASA aren't trying to hide the fact that they produce false colour images. The reasons behind this are fairly understandable.

They are False Color views created to emphasize differences in visual color, and to produce color images when there is not enough information available to calculate the true color of a scene.

So, the may colour different rock types to make them stand out. Or they may not know the colour and just take a wild guess.

The two Panoramic Cameras (called Pancams) on each of the Mars Exploration Rovers work somewhat like a pair of human eyes. Each camera's light sensitive "cells" are called pixels, and they are part of a light detecting "eye" called a Charge Coupled Device, or CCD. However, unlike the human eye, the Pancams only measure one single wavelength or color at a time. In front of each camera is a filter wheel with eight different filters (seven colors plus one filter for looking at the Sun), each of which allows only certain wavelengths to hit the CCD. Five of the filters in the left Pancam eye of each rover are filters which span the colors that we can see, from blue to green to red. The other filters that Pancam uses can detect colors of light that we cannot see, called "ultraviolet" and "infrared." To create these false color pictures of Mars, we use three pictures taken of the same scene from the Pancam's left eye. We use computer software to combine the separate pictures into one where differences in color are stretched and highlighted.

Read more here:

Creating False Color Images of Mars

There is also a ND filter they can use to look at the Sun, and they do that so they can align the antenna for beaming signals back to Earth. The images of the Sun show a pretty small dot, hard to imagine that it could heat Mars very much from that disance, but I read that they think it gets up to 80F in some places, at some times.

Yes they change mars color constantly to make it look more red. The sky is as blue as ours. Why they do it? That's a good question...to maintain the "we haven't found live yet"? to avoid people saying "damn, this reminds me of earth but mars is as total recall showed...". No clue dude. Ask Michael C. Malin, he was promoted to alter mars data after an excellent job hiding information in amundsen scott (antarctica).

Originally posted by Geoshearer
Yes they change mars color constantly to make it look more red. The sky is as blue as ours. Why they do it? That's a good question...to maintain the "we haven't found live yet"? to avoid people saying "damn, this reminds me of earth but mars is as total recall showed...". No clue dude. Ask Michael C. Malin, he was promoted to alter mars data after an excellent job hiding information in amundsen scott (antarctica).

The sky won't be as blue as ours as its not exactly the same make up or density

Originally posted by DragonFire1024
reply to post by Jefferton

 

How quickly we forget this picture:

this picture looks like the top right hand side of the second pic in the OP, just less red

Originally posted by Geoshearer
Yes they change mars color constantly to make it look more red. The sky is as blue as ours. Why they do it? That's a good question...to maintain the "we haven't found live yet"? to avoid people saying "damn, this reminds me of earth but mars is as total recall showed...". No clue dude. Ask Michael C. Malin, he was promoted to alter mars data after an excellent job hiding information in amundsen scott (antarctica).

The color of the sky can change, depending upon the angle of the sun (time the photo was taken), the camera, filters, and most importantly: chemical make up and the amount of and type of particulates that are in the air.

For example, here on Earth, the sky is not ALWAYS blue:







Eruptions of volcanoes here are Earth can give us some pretty cool looking sun sets. The first picture shows you how smog can make things look very NOT blue.

The atmosphere of Mars does not have the same ratio of gases as we have here on Earth, and contains particulates of dust from the surface of Mars.