the race to Mars among the world’s powers it’s not just about who gets to the red planet first, but literally who does everything first. For example, in the battle for the most detailed photo of the inner planet furthest from the Sun, the winner was the POT.
The American space agency was able to capture the most detailed image of Mars thanks to the Perseverance roverthat since landed in Jezero Crater in February 2021, has been exploring the Martian surface.
Now, with the help of Mastcam-Z, the multispectral and stereoscopic imaging instrument, NASA took thousands of photographs between June 12 and 20, 2022 and created the mosaic of 2,500 million pixels that has been published this week.
According to a report published on the website of Xataka, the final image was made up of 1,118 perfectly placed individual images showing in detail the areas called Hogwallow Flats and Skinner Ridgeareas where, according to scientists, a river emptied into Lake Jezero, 3.5 billion years ago.
How much does an image with 2.5 billion pixels weigh?
It is important to note that the main photo and the one added within the text of this publication are just screenshots or cutouts of the original photo. The most detailed image of Mars published by NASA of 2.5 billion pixels weighs 3.58 GB unretouched in its original resolution. You can view or download it at this link.
In the image we can see layers of rocks that form the front cliff, located nine meters above the rover. That mountain has been falling off creating the particular landscape.
The mosaic also reveals glowing rocks at the foot of the Perseverance. The report details that they are fine-grained rocks, considered as objects of interest for ancient life research.