Curiosity sends back flood of new views from Mars

This image of a false-color map based on data from NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, and released by NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU, shows the area where NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012. The image was obtained by Odyssey's Thermal Emission Imaging System. It merges topographical data with thermal inertia data that record the ability of the surface to hold onto heat. The yellow oval shows the elliptical landing target for Curiosity's landing site. An alluvial fan is visible around a crater to the northwest of the landing area. A series of undulating lines traveling southeast from the crater indicates similar material moving down a slope. The material, which appears bluish-green in this image, also forms a fan shape. An area in red indicates a surface material that is more tightly cemented together than rocks around it and likely has a high concentration of minerals. An attractive interpretation for this texture is that water could have been present there some time in the past. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)