First images from Mars Curiosity Rover

Curiosity Mars Rover has landed. Here is the first image from Mars Science Lab:

Credit: JPL/NASA

Curiosity's Surroundings

"This is one of the first images taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT). It was taken through a "fisheye" wide-angle lens on the left "eye" [...]. The clear dust cover that protected the camera during landing has been sprung open. Part of the spring that released the dust cover can be seen at the bottom right, near the rover's wheel. On the top left, part of the rover's power supply is visible. Some dust appears on the lens even with the dust cover off. The cameras are looking directly into the sun, so the top of the image is saturated. Looking straight into the sun does not harm the cameras. The lines across the top are an artifact called "blooming" that occurs in the camera's detector because of the saturation.  As planned, the rover's early engineering images are lower resolution. Larger color images from other cameras are expected later in the week [...]." Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Text credit: NASA/JPL