Mars landscape

Landscape on Mars taken by NASA's Curiosity rover after crossing a dune.

This image was taken by the rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam) on the 538th martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (9 February 2014). The rover had driven over the dune three days earlier. For scale, the distance between the parallel wheel tracks is about 2.7 m. The dune is about 1 m tall in the middle of its span across an opening called "Dingo Gap." The view is looking eastward.

The image has been white-balanced to show what the Martian surface materials would look like if under the light of Earth's sky. A version with raw color, as recorded by the camera under Martian lighting conditions, is available here.