Earth Return & Sample Science Options

[Marcin600]

Animated gif

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[FOV]

I agree Hungry4info. Spectacular. My messing about with filters and such.

[Marcin600]

a little earlier - and closer

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[Marcin600]

edge of the hole ?

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[Marcin600]

first stages

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[Explorer1]

Wow! dusting off the old swear jar! The liquid metaphor from the telecon is a great description, it really looks like its seething. Spaceflight image of the year!

Too bad about not returning to Bennu to see the wider view, but a bird in the hand (or SRC) is worth two in the bush, as they say.

[Marcin600]

the second stage

I wonder if all these thin, elongated shadows (almost black, thick lines) are the silhouettes of flat grains of regolith right next to the camera?

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[Brian Swift]

Before and After. Frames 274 and 469 from NavCam2_TAG_single_loop_complete_small_gif.gif.
"After" frame has been brightened by 2.5x to better match "before".
The rocks(boulders?) along the right and bottom edge of "after" image can be matched to "before" image which covers a somewhat wider area.

[Marcin600]

Before and After. Frames 274 and 469 from NavCam2_TAG_single_loop_complete_small_gif.gif.
"After" frame has been brightened by 2.5x to better match "before".
The rocks(boulders?) along the right and bottom edge of "after" image can be matched to "before" image which covers a somewhat wider area.

Looking at this brilliant before-after compilation, it now seems to me that all these dark areas and other things are happening on or above the surface, and that it is not a crater or a depression after all.
PS Of course except the pre-existing shallow crater (the target of the operation). These black areas can be hanging clouds or spots of very fine, dark debris (?)

[Greenish]

Agree that these are fantastic images, most inspiring to get engaged with for me since some of the early Curiosity stuff.

Dusting off some of my tool from then (like StereoPhotoMaker, which has improved!) here's some quick pseudo-3D views from nearby frames at the end of the sequence. Contrast stretched.

Cross-eye view

"Rotating illusion" gif (click to animate)... this one I turned 90 deg because it was easier for me to visually process.

[Greenish]

And here are two more, from adjacent frames (no shadow appearing suddenly and the disparity is less exaggerated). Also rotated so the motion is ~horizontal to align with eye separation.
crosseye:
gif:

... seems to me that all these dark areas and other things are happening on or above the surface, and that it is not a crater or a depression after all.
PS Of course except the pre-existing shallow crater (the target of the operation). These black areas can be hanging clouds or spots of very fine, dark debris (?)

From these shots it appears to me that the dark areas are shadowed by the curtain of suspended material. What look like streaks of light under the "sheet" of particles are really cool, and there does appear to be a depression. Edit: The center of the impact zone is at about at the edge of the frame by this part of the sequence.

[Marcin600]

My attempt to make "before-and-after" animation (frames: 279 and 476):

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[Marcin600]

Now it looks to me as if a cloud of debris was coming from the top of the photo (from the sampling site) and was being pushed from the bottom left corner (by the engine blast?). A black veil is created where the cloud thickens (on the border of the interaction of these two forces). This thickened veil also seems to cast a shadow towards the left and bottom of the photo...
This is just my speculation.

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[Greenish]

Animated movie of the 'blast,' starting from where ground becomes visible again.


Full-res all frames here: https://imgur.com/a/Wp8swJD... had to make it pretty small, and use every other frame, to upload here as a GIF.

(I did NOT think this would work. All the hard part done by those who implemented the SIFT-based stack alignment tools in ImageJ! It is quite possible there are some distortions, but I'm learning as I go.)

[monty python]

Wow Greenish! Emptied my wallet into the swear jar.