用“好奇號”迄今為止最清晰的全景探索火星

用“好奇號”迄今為止最清晰的全景探索火星

Have you ever wanted to explore Mars? Well, NASA is giving you the closest thing to it without leaving the comfort of your own home. The space agency has released a stunning 1.8-billion-pixel image of a sweeping Marscape taken by Curiosity late last year.

你曾經(jīng)想探索火星嗎?NASA給了你最接近它的東西，而不用離開舒適的家。美國宇航局近日公布了一幅令人震驚的18億像素的火星全景圖像，這幅圖像是去年年底由“好奇號”拍攝的。

The panorama is a composite of over 1,000 pictures of a region called Glen Torridon, on the side of Mount Sharp, where Curiosity is currently stationed. The mission team took the opportunity presented by a reduced workload during the Thanksgiving holiday to focus on the panorama you can now explore.

這幅全景圖是由1000多張名為Glen Torridon的地區(qū)的照片合成而成，該地區(qū)位于夏普山的一側(cè)，“好奇號”目前就駐扎在那里。任務(wù)團隊利用感恩節(jié)期間工作量減少的機會，專注于你現(xiàn)在可以探索的全景。

Alfredo Carpineti

Between November 24 and December 1, Curiosity’s Mastcam used its telephoto lens to snap the pictures. It operated only between 12 and 2pm local time, so that the lighting conditions were more or less constant, and it took six and a half hours to complete. It is rare that Curiosity has the same vantage point and the time to do something like this, so it couldn't be missed.

在11月24日至12月1日之間，“好奇號”的桅頂照相機用長焦鏡頭抓拍了這些照片。它只在當(dāng)?shù)貢r間12點到下午2點之間運行，因此照明條件或多或少是恒定的，完成它需要6個半小時。“好奇號”很少有這樣的有利位置和時間來做這樣的事情，所以它不會被錯過。

"While many on our team were at home enjoying turkey, Curiosity produced this feast for the eyes," said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement. "This is the first time during the mission we've dedicated our operations to a stereo 360-degree panorama."

美國宇航局噴氣推進實驗室的“好奇號”項目科學(xué)家阿什溫·瓦薩瓦達(dá)在一份聲明中說:“當(dāng)我們團隊中的許多人在家享用火雞時，‘好奇號’卻為我們帶來了一場視覺盛宴。”“這是我們第一次在執(zhí)行任務(wù)期間致力于立體360度全景。”

Use your fingers or mouse to zoom in and out and drag around to explore the panorama in incredible detail.

The last high-resolution panorama from Curiosity was taken in 2013 and was a 1.3-billion-pixel image from the base of Gale Crater, showing Mount Sharp, the mission's target of exploration, on the hazy horizon.

“好奇號”最后一張高分辨率全景照片拍攝于2013年，是蓋爾隕石坑底部的一張13億像素的圖片，顯示了在朦朧的地平線上探索任務(wù)的目標(biāo)——夏普山。

Curiosity has pottering and taking pictures (and selfies) on Mars since August 6, 2012 and has covered just over half the distance of a half marathon (21 kilometers/13 miles) across the Red Planet. Not bad for a rover whose top speed on flat ground is 0.14 kilometers per hour (0.09 miles per hour).

從2012年8月6日起，“好奇號”就開始在火星上漫步、拍照(和自拍)，目前它已經(jīng)完成了半個馬拉松(21公里/13英里)的一半路程。對于在平地上最高速度為每小時0.14公里(每小時0.09英里)的火星車來說，這已經(jīng)很不錯了。