Curiosity Rover from NASA has captured an up-close image of the red planet's mountainous landscape, with purple-coloured rocks littered across the foreground.
Images are from Mast Camera (Mastcam) on Curiosity Mars rover showing purple-hued rocks near the rover's late-2016 location on lower Mount Sharp.
Variations in colour of the rocks hint at the diversity of their composition on lower Mount Sharp, NASA said.
The purple tone of the foreground rocks has been seen in other rocks where Curiosity's Chemical and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument has detected hematite, it said.
Winds and windblown sand in this part of Curiosity's traverse and in this season tend to keep rocks relatively free of dust, which otherwise can cloak rocks' colour.
The three frames combined into a mosaic were acquired by the Mastcam's right-eye camera on November 10, during the 1,516th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars.
