NASA's Curiosity Rover Explores Subtly Banded Terrain on Mars

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has been exploring a subtly banded area on Mars, with the rover capturing images of the terrain using its Right Navigation Camera. The subtle banding can be picked out in tonal differences, with bands ranging from 25-200 meters in diameter. The rover has been investigating the area, with the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) analyzing brushed nodular bedrock at several locations. The rover has also acquired images of the path ahead, with Navcam and Mastcam capturing images of the terrain. The environmental team has been monitoring dust-devil movies, suprahorizon movies, and tau images, which look at dust in the atmosphere. The rover is currently moving up the valley known as "Valle Grande," having climbed over an "erosional supersurface" in recent weeks.