nice!

All you need in that second photo is a 2nd sun and a silhouette of Luke.

John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra everyone!

Excellent job Nasa! I think I'll become a nomad!

Beautiful. :)

Hit the jump for a shit of the Martian sunset

Whoops.

I love typos: "Hit the jump for a shit of the Martian sunset".

@Git Em SteveDave has a crush on the Swedes: Ahhhh, you beat me to it! But yeah, that would make the picture complete!

"...a shit of the martian sunset..."

The celestial being known to some as "God" took a tiny little dump. He's so holy it came out perfectly spherical and glowing like a gem.

May His Noodly Appendage touch you.

@bobman1235: @jhcovert: @jibbly: Yeah yeah yeah!

I know people like to poopoo on this kind of thing, but I really believe that people need this to progress. The less we explore, the less we care to advance, the less we grow, and the sooner we collapse.

Call me paranoid or what have you, but that first picture of the landers arm.. looks with out a doubt to have been made using ProEngineer, a 3d engineering modeling tool. I say this because I was just working on a part to a bobcat (those mini bulldozer machines) using roughly the same textures. Decided to take a break and read giz for a few min saw this pic and figured it was a concept of what the landers arm really looked like - not .. the real thing.

might be my computer screen? and the shrunken size of the picture that makes it look this way? I'm running it on 1280 x 1024

That second picture looks like a scene from Star Wars: A New Hope. I am having a vision that the next Star Wars will be filmed on location.

@Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!: Sounds like Nas lyrics. Ha! I agree. This is wild.

I thought the sunset looked familiar and sure enough the caption reads it is from 2005 and the image is a "false color composite, with the colors slightly exaggerated."

The first pic is also a composite of some kind- you can see the seams where the pictures are combined on the solar panels.

Cool pictures, but not really what they seem.

@Kaiser-Machead:

+ Watch video

@Quicksilver4648: Why would they do that when it looks just as good with computer generated imagery!?

*snicker*

If you look hard enough you can see a few whomp rats.

@SeventhExile:

Wow! You figured it out! This was all part of NASA's secret plan to fool everyone into thinking mars was red when in reality it's green and blue.

Look straight out in front of the lander and you can see a whomp rat.

stupid comment system, thanks for posting my message twice effectively making me look like teh n00b. Damn you commentmodo.

@Adam Frucci: the iPhone would've fixed it!!!

@Sora57: pic one looks really ..shopped. Cool none the less.

Been looking for a large version of that sunset, thanks!

@Sora57: Yeah... the lander takes panoramic pictures by taking multiple shots (i believe simultaniously through multiple lenses) and putting them together. There are going to be seams, as in any panoramic shot. I'm pretty sure this lander (like the others before it) takes 360 degree panoramic pictures.

Wahoo. My favorite is the pic of Phobos. Wonder when we'll have that kind of phtographs on flickr. Maybe when Canon will decide it's time for the 5D Mark II to be presented^^

These pics bring a tear to my eye...

I'm actually happy that I don't see any replies so far with the whole "What a waste of time and money!". I hate those.

I wish those pics were a touch larger. I'd love to use em as a background image. Especially the sunset one.

@Git Em SteveDave has a crush on the Swedes: didn't you know that is where Lucas filmed Star Wars? I thought everyone did - common knowledge_

They look like... home.

looks like post nuclear holocaust texas.
wow.

@Wakeley: >>looks like post nuclear holocaust texas.

Looks like parts of pre-nuclear holocaust Texas. : )

Needs to be in 1024 resolution. From what I understand, they are using two cameras to be able to do stereo imagery.

what are we waiting for?!? send a bunch of the earth's death row inmates up there and see how it is! I mean after the long journey surely not all of them would be killed by eachother. Right?

@MyPetFly: Waco anyone?

@Wakeley:

Yeah, no kidding!

The picture of Phobos is insane. How come it isn't round?

If you look in the top left corner of photo 2, you can see the stage lighting.

The last picture is just AMAZING!!

@rockstarjoe: lots of reasons, the summation of which is that it's too small and probably an asteroid... awwww look, it's so cute!

@rockstarjoe:

Part of the reason is because a big chunk was taken out from the upper left corner -- that's an impact crater, I believe about 9km wide. And I'm guessing the gravitational field isn't strong enough (due to its small size) to pull enough debris from space to make it round, either by collecting dust or by constant impacts from space rocks chipping away at it.

@SeventhExile: I agree with you 100%. When I first saw that picture my immediate gut instinct was that the machinery in the foreground was created using a 3d rendering program like Maya.

I'm not sure why such a picture would be released as real, but I am not ready to accept that that picture has not been altered.

looks like a good spot for tanning... give me my golden thongs! and the golden bikini for the lady! pixs are cool...

anyone make a reference to transformers yet?
does this count as one?

"Two weeks"

Dude...frickin' Mars dude...

*head explodes*

Home sweet home...

You guys actually like these pictures? It's pictures of dirt and a giant crater... If I give an average joe millions of dollars I'm sure he'd come back with all sorts of cool and wonderful things. Give the government millions of dollars and they come back with a handful of dirt and a picture of a hole.

looks like someone's backyard tough...

@GHETTO.CHiLD: heh n00b

@Rabid Penguin: What if this was a picture of a planet on the other side of the galaxy? Would they still be meaningless?

@Rabid Penguin: They let you read the internet on your break at Geek Squad. That's so cute!

"Above is a high-res pic of the Pheonix lander..."
PhOEnix! O before E (except after G, and when it sounds like "YUH" as in OUTRAGEOUS and BLUDGEON... or something like that).

@Rabid Penguin:

Well we HAD to expect this. ; )

I think what people like (myself at least) isn't so much what's literally seen in the photos as much as what they represent -- these are things we couldn't have seen 30 or 40 years ago. I think whatever they looked like, a lot of us would be amazed -- either that they look so much like home, or on the flip-side of the coin, that they look so DIFFERENT than home (if that was the case).

@investigator: Haha - my favorite line from Total Recall.

awesome man.
And it's still quite creepy the picture showing earth from mars.

So small...
But it stands out A LOT.

@Rabid Penguin: What, you were expecting a giant rock goatse?

@Wakeley: Leave Waco alone! I was born and raised there! Not that it was exactly the greatest city to live in. Ya know, the crime rate being what it was but that whole bunch of bullshit with that crazy cult guy and the FBI being morons didn't even happen in Waco.

Looks like Gerlach Nevada to me. ;)

@Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!: The photos are just that, photos. If his faux-jadedness keeps him from seeing the real beauty in them, my guess is he would still see them as meaningless regardless of how far away they are.

@bbfreak: And Dr. Pepper did happen there!

@rockstarjoe: It's photoshopped!

@92BuickLeSabre: Damn straight! Big Red too!

@Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!: If we're talking strictly pictures, no picture of a sea of red dirt is ever going to match the beauty or majesty of, say, a nebula or something. I realize some people are excited about being able to study Mars, and look for life or water there and all that. But just looking at pictures, c'mon... it's a boring planet :c)

No planet will ever match the beauty of Earth. If you take Mars and add blue skies, maybe some clouds, you have Arizona. So why not send a space mission to Arizona :c)

@pulyx: Kind of reminds me of the pale blue dot.

@Rabid Penguin: Well it depends, give me a few million dollars and I'd land it on Olympus Mon and snap a photo. That or crash it into Valles Marineris and then have the rover crawl about on the canyon floor.

@Rabid Penguin:

Yes I like them!.
I would definitly prefer pictures of martian girls with six nipples wearing string bikinis or something, but they are usually shy and stay away from cameras or hide underground. (That's why the lander can dig in the soil... right?)

Even if we gave YOU the money, I think that the best we could get would be a few pictures of your back yard, NOT pictures of another planet MILLIONS of MILES AWAY.

God luck with your idea of space conquest.

:)

@Rabid Penguin: People aren't oohing and ahing at the pictures themselves. If these same exact pictures were taken in some desert in the midwest, then no one would care. People care more about the lengths taken to get these pictures. Again, a picture taken on a planet on the farthest possible frontiers of the galaxy can be absolutely banal compared to any great shot of nature on earth, but that picture matters just as much because it's still showing a great deal more in existence than we did prior. It's not for aesthetic value, it's purely for our adventurous spirit.

@Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!: I wasn't aware the midwest had deserts.

@dangster: lol yeah, I don't know what the hell I was thinking when I typed that.

Though I consider Nebraska a desert. Despite the lack of sand and cacti.

DO NOT ARGUE

@dangster: Ever heard of the Nebraska sand hills?

Is it true that Mars intentionally adds a sepia tint to make Mars look more Marsy?

@Rabid Penguin: Look at that beautiful photo of Arizona and think about how many people have been there, seen that exact same thing and for the most part, thought the exact same thoughts as everybody else that's ever been there. The photos of mars, while not as visually impressive, represent so much more.

@dangster, Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!, and Rabid Penguin: It depends on how you define midwest and desert, but it's not completely off the mark.

Great American Desert

That's it. I am getting my mortgage pre-approved to buy a two bedroom loft in Mars :)

MLS.MARS coming soon to a site near you.

@aec007: Dude, 6 nipples? WTF! that is sick! that is 2 nipples too many!

I've taken my share of photos, i've brought my d50 everywhere and shoot alot, often every day. The few that are worth keeping, striking photos that illicit any kind of emotional response or what we would call "meaning" (whatever that is) didn't just happen, they're preceded by hundreds (or thousands) of other worthless photos. To say that we can launch a robot millions of miles and land safely on a rock, roll out and start taking snapshots, and expect pulitzer quality photos is expecting a bit much. Even still, this mission produced what's probably my favorite mars image so far:

[cache.boston.com]

@lpranal: Is that Mars or Arrakis?

Mars discovery mission... more here

There's probably a ton of amazing places to take shots on mars, but right now they're not of as much scientific interest compared to the sites they're at now...

@lpranal: That would explain why of the literally tens of pictures I've taken in my life, most are somewhere being terrible and not so good.

@Rabid Penguin: You do know they color-map the hell out of those nebula pics. Compared to a glowing Martian sunset, a naked nebula can be surprisingly bland.

You guys should definitely take a look at The Big Picture blog. Unbelievable photos!
Very cool, thank you Frucci!!

3dsMax Autodesk sure has come a long way!

wheres luke skywalker?

@CCCombobreaker:
Your an complete dick, I clearly stated that I wasn't sure if it had to do with my computer screen or not. Btw it doesnt. the first image is w/ out a doubt composed of a 3d rendering program. The arm is not real I can tell you this w/ out a doubt because I work for a 3d modeling company where I see this stuff every day..

@TaitRT:
Its odd hu? .. I have no doubt they really sent the thing to mars and their getting pictures back, but I wonder why they would have a computer rendered image of the lander and call it real..
maybe they took one of the real pictures and rendered over it to make it look better?.. bring out more of the colours and the likes.. that could be a valid reason.