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'Ireson Hill' on Mount Sharp, Mars.
This dark mound, called “Ireson Hill,” rises about 16 feet (5 meters) above redder layered out-
crop material of the Murray formation on lower Mount Sharp, near a location where Curiosity
rover examined a linear sand dune in February 2017. Researchers used the Mastcam on Feb. 2,
2017, during the 1,598
th
sol of Curiosity's work on Mars, to take the 41 images combined into
this scene. The mosaic has been white-balanced so that the colors of the rock and sand mate-
rials resemble how they would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. The view
extends from west-southwest on the left to north-northwest on the right. The faint horizon in
the distance beyond Ireson Hill is part of the rim of Gale Crater. [NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS]
'Nathan
Bridges
Dune' on a Martian Mountain.
A rippled linear dune of dark
Martian sand, “Nathan Bridges
Dune,” dominates this near full-circle panorama from the Mastcam of Curiosity.
This dune was one research stop of the rover mission's campaign to investigate
active Martian dunes. The feature was informally named in 2017 in memory of
Nathan Bridges (1966-2017), a planetary scientist who was a leader of the Cu-
riosity team's dune campaign. The scene combines 112 images taken with
Mastcam's left-eye camera on Feb. 5, 2017, during the 1,601
st
sol of Curiosity's
work on Mars. The panorama has been white-balanced so that colors of the rock
and sand materials resemble how they would appear under daytime lighting
conditions on Earth. The center is toward east-southeast and both ends
are toward west-northwest. The dark butte on the horizon in the left half is “Ireson
Hill.” Upper Mount Sharp is on the horizon in the center. [NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS]