Can someone explain this NASA Curiosity photo?

A youtube video caught my eye just a bit ago:



Now just to preface this a little bit, before having found out what this video was even about...I too noticed that parts of this nasa photo




mars.jpl.nasa.gov...

had what appeared to be very soft patches of green on the distant hills...I passed this observation off as my eyes playing tricks on me and really didn't make any significant note of it...UNTIL...I found out what the video was about.

The poster of the video made the same observation that I did but he apparently didn't pass his off as easily as I passed mine off as "nothing".

I did the exact same thing he did adjusting only the levels and came up with the same results so he didn't adjust anything in the origional nasa image other than the levels...

here is my level adjustment


he makes several other observations that I find pretty interesting as well most notably the distinct dividing line from clear resolution to a foggy haze, it appears to just pop up out of nowhere...

What I'm most curious about though is why when only adjusting the levels from a NASA original photo does the color green even show up...unless, it wasn't originally there even tho very faint due to the "haze"??

If the landscape was as devoid of color as proclaimed (most notably green) one would expect a levels adjustment to only reveal darker reds, oranges, and browns...

Anyone else have some thoughts on this?

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to see but there might be a nice/curvy road up ahead! (It's in the middle of the photo.)

Originally posted by pikypiky
I'm not sure what I'm supposed to see but there might be a nice/curvy road up ahead! (It's in the middle of the photo.)

yes that was another thing that was mentioned in the video...I find it interesting but not overwhelmingly, the green level adjustment is what has me perplexed.

I dont think they messed with the photos i think its the way it came out. Too bad they didn't bring water, and a living thing and see what happens.

reply to post by dayve


would have been AMAZING had they tried to plant a great sequoia tee. OMG that would be awesome wouldent it? just imagine the what ifs? what if it grew at an increased rate and grew to a full size in 2 years, or that it would mutate or or or .... i wish i had millions o taxpayer dollars to spend on something just to see what would happen.

I don't really get what's being implied. That there is grass on the hills? Lighting conditions are obviously not going to be identical as to what we would see on Earth... different planet after all. Different atmosphere/light scattering/reflective properties of surface/etc.

White light is made up of the entire color spectrum. Anything being pulled from the reflected spectrum (absorbed by the surface) will create a perceived abundance of the remaining colors.

I just don't get what this person on YouTube wants us to think about this. Maybe it's some kind of algae or fungus, wouldn't that be exciting. :-)

Just watched the video..... and I have to be completely honest.
First, running my own photography business I do quite a lot of retouching and editing with Photoshop, probably about 15 hours a week of Photoshop. Now for me, after watching the video the first thing I thought was "What type of monitor is he using in the video" was it calibrated? was it an lcd? Anyone in photography knows consumer brand lcd's are notoriously bad for editing photos and they do show blue much more (due to fluorescent backlight) than a crt or high end lcd specific for photo editing.
I went up to my office and looked at the photo she showed in the video and it looked completely different than what he was showing. My bet is that A. his monitor is not calibrated or B. he doesn't really understand how to use image editing programs, using levels will not magically bring out colors.
He also says "it has the texture of grass" if you look at how much he zooms in, there is NO way you can see texture with a 2mp photo when looking at the crater wall 13 miles away! The image is listed as "Wall of Gale Crater" on JPL's website and you can go to google earth and view curiosity's location and match up the crater wall.
I wish I could upload high resolution photos to here to show you that its impossible to accurately see color in a photo like that, I have a 12mp image I took with a Nikon D2X for a Sanibel Island brochure and while looking at it right now I went on google earth and checked the distance from my viewpoint to the buildings in Fort Myers which is only 3 miles and its impossible to see anything but pixels and thats with a nikon cmos sensor.
I'm sorry but it really bothers me and angers me when people think they can click a few buttons and unveil things that they don't understand when using image editing.

One other thing, there is a reason why gimp imaging software is free.........

That's interesting. I don't know.

Neither do I know about these things:




Someone else in another thread found this. What is it?

They appear to be...... rocks.
But again you really can't tell with low res images like that. Gotta understand that each pixel only shows one color, so you really cant get detail out of a photo like that.
My 2 cents...... I don't think there is much on mars other than rocks and dirt, but the pictures are quite amazing.

The original NASA photo has unsaturated green tones within it. As you can see here;



Of course when you adjust the levels, it will bring more of the green tones out.

But this is probably just due to the camera, not because Mars has grass.

Originally posted by AkumaStreak
I don't really get what's being implied. That there is grass on the hills? Lighting conditions are obviously not going to be identical as to what we would see on Earth. different planet after all.

Is it?

These "extra terrestrial photos" could easily be 1,000 different places right here on Earth.

reply to post by Sly1one


I just had a quick look at the photo and when i zoomed it i could clearly see green grass without adjusting anything, good find. That picture also has some of the worst photo shopping i've ever seen it is almost like the background is super imposed on to the original landscape, or like you say a filter has been placed over the mountain. I'm surprised they'd stuff up so bad it is almost like it is deliberate.

Facts are whether anyone believes it or not Mars has water & vegetation here is another clear example this time trees and grass, look it up on google mars for yourself. Oh yes the photo also reveals other things but i didn't want to go off topice

trees and grass...

Originally posted by nepatitan
if you look at how much he zooms in, there is NO way you can see texture with a 2mp photo when looking at the crater wall 13 miles away!

You're right.

I've been whining about this for a week now.

$2.5 BILLION DOLLAR SPACE CRAFT.... $20 cameras...... in a day and age when we have cameras that can CAPTURE THE SPEED OF LIGHT



IMHO all the "Curiosity" threads should be dumped into the HOAX bin. NASA is a joke... and it's on us.

OP - I have a 457 MB .TIFF of the newest panorama. Do you want it? It's better than what NASA has released so far.

reply to post by jaysbot


No way you saw grass with a focal length of 21.3mm with a 2MP sensor at 13 miles.

I don't see trees and grass on google earth, can you point out where you see them?

reply to post by HIWATT


Have you watched the video of that? Amazing, I watched it like 10 times!!!

Here's the .TIFF (Torrent - I'll leave my torrent software up for you).

extratorrent.com...

And here's a 60 MB or so .JPG. Way better than NASA's.

extratorrent.com...

Let us know what you find. I'm not too familiar with messing around with images, but I was able to stitch that bad boy nicely!

Edit - nevermind. They took them down! I need to find another torrent hosting site. I didn't even break any rules!

Anyone else can grab one if they want. I highly recommend it.

Edit - nevermind. They took them down! I need to find another torrent hosting site. I didn't even break any rules!

Originally posted by nepatitan
reply to post by jaysbot

 

No way you saw grass with a focal length of 21.3mm with a 2MP sensor at 13 miles.

I don't see trees and grass on google earth, can you point out where you see them?

The CO is in the photo, vegetation is all over the particular mountain. If you can't see it clearly i can't help you.

tiff files are right here

photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov...

reply to post by jaysbot


Yea I know I found it on google earth mars, was just asking you to point (arrows maybe) where you see vegetation all over the mountain. All I see are shadows. There is a very high resolution image strip. Click on featured satellite image and you can almost see to the crater rim.