Mars in first color image sent back by Curiosity (pictures)

New images returned from NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars Sunday evening, show a three-dimensional view from the rover's left and right front Hazard Avoidance cameras.

Curiosity's rear left and right Hazard Avoidance cameras acquire black-and-white pictures from left and right stereo "eyes," which are merged to provide three-dimensional information.

Curiosity's front left and right Hazard Avoidance cameras acquire black-and-white pictures from left and right stereo "eyes," which are merged to provide three-dimensional information.

During Curiosity's spectacular technical landing on Mars Sunday night, the entry, descent, and landing (EDL) required the rover to jettison hardware as it completed each phase of the operation.

In this wide view of the landing area, taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, we can see the four main pieces of equipment, captured by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera about 24 hours after landing.

The darker areas in all four debris spots are from disturbances of the bright dust on Mars, revealing the darker material below the surface dust.

During Curiosity's descent, the lens cover on the rover's camera got covered with a thin film of dust. Here, we see a comparison between the dust coated lens on the left and the lens after the protective covering was removed. The Hazard Avoidance camera, or Hazcam, took this image of Mount Sharp in the distance on August 6, 2012.

Curiosity's parachute and back shell are seen on the surface of Mars in this image captured by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter about 24 hours after the parachute helped gently set the rover on the surface. When the back shell hit the ground, bright dust was kicked up, exposing darker material underneath.

This close-up view shows Curiosity's heat shield, center, which helped the rover survive the harrowing journey through the martian atmosphere, on the surface of Mars, captured by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter about 24 hours after landing.

The impact of Curiosity's sky crane, which helped deliver the rover to the surface of Mars by lowering it the final 20 feet on a tether, exposed the darker material underneath the surface dust when it landed after being jettisoned away from the rover.

This picture of the martian landing site of NASA's Curiosity rover puts a color view obtained by the rover in the context of a computer simulation derived from images acquired by orbiting spacecraft. The view looks north, showing a distant ridge that is the north wall and rim of Gale Crater.

The color image was obtained by Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager on August 6 PT, the first martian day after Curiosity's landing on August 5 PT. It has been rendered about 10 percent transparent so scientists can see how it matches the simulated terrain in the background. The MAHLI image was taken while the camera's transparent dust cover was still on. Curiosity's descent coated the cover with a thin film of dust.

The computer simulation is a digital elevation model that incorporates data from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and Context Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA's Mars Express.

The peak seen on the left side of the MAHLI image is about 15 miles (24 kilometers) distant with a height of about 3,775 feet (1,150 meters). The box with arrows at the upper left indicates direction. The arrow pointing up is "up" with respect to the gravity of Mars. The arrow pointing to the right is east. North would be an arrow pointing into the image (that is, the MAHLI view is toward the north).

The MAHLI is located on the turret at the end of Curiosity's robotic arm. At the time the MAHLI image was acquired, the robotic arm was in its stowed position. It has been stowed since the rover was packaged for its November 26, 2011, launch.

When the robotic arm, turret, and MAHLI are stowed, the MAHLI is in a position that is rotated 30 degrees relative to the rover deck. The MAHLI image shown here has been rotated to correct for that tilt, so that the sky is "up" and the ground is "down." Here, MAHLI is looking out from the front left side of the rover. This is much like the view from the driver's side of cars sold in the U.S.

The main purpose of Curiosity's MAHLI camera is to acquire close-up, high-resolution views of rocks and soil at the rover's Gale Crater field site. The camera is capable of focusing on any target at distances of about 0.8 inch (2.1 centimeters) to infinity. This means it can, as shown here, also obtain pictures of the Martian landscape. This was the first time the MAHLI focus mechanism was operated since before launch and it performed flawlessly.