Curiosity rover "caught in the act of landing"—NASA photo

This just in from Mars:

NASA's Curiosity rover and its parachute were spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as Curiosity descended to the surface on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT). The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera captured this image of Curiosity while the orbiter was listening to transmissions from the rover. Curiosity and its parachute are in the center of the white box; the inset image is a cutout of the rover stretched to avoid saturation. The rover is descending toward the etched plains just north of the sand dunes that fringe "Mt. Sharp." From the perspective of the orbiter, the parachute and Curiosity are flying at an angle relative to the surface, so the landing site does not appear directly below the rover.
The parachute appears fully inflated and performing perfectly. Details in the parachute, such as the band gap at the edges and the central hole, are clearly seen. The cords connecting the parachute to the back shell cannot be seen, although they were seen in the image of NASA's Phoenix lander descending, perhaps due to the difference in lighting angles. The bright spot on the back shell containing Curiosity might be a specular reflection off of a shiny area. Curiosity was released from the back shell sometime after this image was acquired.

More about the photo here. (courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: curiosity • jpl • Mars • MSL • NASA • Science • space flight

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aaronharnly

Well, that’s the most wonderful picture I’ll see this year.
http://twitter.com/suo_gan Patty

Planetary nerdgasm
paulj

This is why you do your math and science homework, kids. You can grow up and figure out how to do things like this!
http://www.facebook.com/karpenko Paul Karpenko

Let’s not forget that NASA already stunned us with this ability in 2008 by photographing the descent of the Phoenix lander.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080530.html
RedShirt77

Are color photos coming later? longer to transmit?
- Lotney
  
  Yes!!
  
  https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/status/232412416728788992
corydodt

Heh, “caught in the act,” as if NASA doesn’t have every moment and every single actor in this entire process scripted down to milliseconds.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=656290758 Jeff Dannaldson

yo dawg…*xzibit.jpg*
Paul Bowen

Awestruck.
Lotney

Imagine having this parachute one day in your hands here and a few months later you get to see it helping the rover slow down to the right speed before the next stage kicks in. You can see it.. it’s right there! An action shot! Knowing that the thing you had in your hands just yesterday is now holding so many dreams by a few threads in such a far away and abysmal place must be life changing.
donald branscom

Did the final version have 4 cables holing the rover or 3 cables????