English: Mars Hand Lens Imager Sends Ultra High-Res Photo from Mars - This image of a U.S. penny on a calibration target was taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) aboard NASA's Curiosity rover in Gale Crater on Mars. At 14 micrometers per pixel, this is the highest-resolution image that MAHLI can acquire.
This image was obtained as part of a test on the 411th Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Oct. 2, 2013), the first time the rover's robotic arm placed MAHLI close enough to a target to obtain the camera's highest-possible resolution. It shows that, during the penny's 14 months (so far) on Mars, it has accumulated Martian dust and clumps of dust, despite its vertical mounting position on the calibration target for MAHLI.
The previous highest-resolution MAHLI images, which were pictures of Martian rocks, were at 16 to 17 micrometers per pixel. A micrometer, also known as a micron, is about 0.000039 inch.
The penny is a 1909 VDB penny minted in Philadelphia during the first year that Lincoln cents became available. More information about its inclusion on the MAHLI calibration target is available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-033 .
The gold medal for highest resolution photographs on Mars goes to NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's optical microscope. As a microscope, though, fine-grained samples had to be delivered to it, whereas MAHLI can be deployed to look at geologic materials in their natural setting.
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As listed by the the U.S. Currency Education Program at money illustrations, the Counterfeit Detection Act of 1992, Public Law 102-550, in Section 411 of Title 31 of the Code of Federal Regulations (31 CFR 411), permits color illustrations of U.S. currency provided: 1. The illustration is of a size less than three-fourths or more than one and one-half, in linear dimension, of each part of the item illustrated; 2. The illustration is one-sided; and 3. All negatives, plates, positives, digitized storage medium, graphic files, magnetic medium, optical storage devices, and any other thing used in the making of the illustration that contain an image of the illustration or any part thereof are destroyed and/or deleted or erased after their final use. Certain coins contain copyrights licensed to the U.S. Mint and owned by third parties or assigned to and owned by the U.S. Mint [1]. For the United States Mint circulating coin design use policy, see [2]; for the policy on the 50 State Quarters, see [3].