New photos sent back by Curiosity

The heat shield of NASA's Curiosity rover, which helped the rover survive the harrowing journey through the Martian atmosphere on the surface of Mars, is seen in this detailed close-up view released by NASA Aug 7, 2012. The image was captured by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter about 24 hours after landing. When the object hit the ground, bright dust at the surface was churned up, exposing darker material underneath. This image was acquired from a special 41-degree roll of MRO, larger than the normal 30-degree limit. It rolled towards the west and towards the sun, which increases visible scattering by atmospheric dust as well as the amount of atmosphere the orbiter has to look through, thereby reducing the contrast of surface features. The image scale is 39 centimeters (15.3 inches) per pixel. [Photo/Agencies]

The Martian landing site of NASA's Curiosity rover puts a color view obtained by the rover in the context of a computer simulation derived from images acquired from orbiting spacecraft, in this picture released by NASA August 7, 2012. The view looks north, showing a distant ridge that is the north wall and rim of Gale Crater. The color image was obtained by Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on August 6, 2012. It has been rendered about 10 percent transparent so that scientists can see how it matches the simulated terrain in the background. The MAHLI image was taken while the camera's transparent dust cover was still on. Curiosity's descent coated the cover with a thin film of dust. The peak seen on the left-side of the MAHLI image is about 15 miles (24 kilometers) distant with a height of about 3,775 feet (1,150 meters) high. The box with arrows at the upper left indicates direction. The arrow pointing up is "up" with respect to the gravity of Mars. The arrow pointing to the right is east. North would be an arrow pointing into the image. [Photo/Agencies]