Explanation:
Just as it captured
the Phoenix lander parachuting to Mars in 2008,
the HiRise camera onboard the
Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) snapped this picture of the
Curiosity rover's spectacular descent
toward its landing site on August 5 (PDT).
The nearly 16 meter (51 foot) wide parachute and its payload are
caught
dropping through the thin martian atmosphere
above plains just north of the sand dune field that
that borders the 5 kilometer high Mt. Sharp in
Gale Crater.
The MRO spacecraft was about 340 kilometers away when the image was
made.
From MRO's perspective the parachute is flying at an angle
to the surface so the landing site itself does not appear below it.
Dangling from tethers and
still about
3 kilometers above Mars, Curiosity and its rocket powered
sky crane have not yet been deployed.
