The camera primarily produces black-and-white images with a colorized strip running down the middle to ensure optimal spatial resolution. It previously spotted Curiosity in color in 2023.

HiRISE usually photographs with a strip of color in the middle, but this time Curiosity was caught in the camera’s black-and-white zone. The lack of color doesn’t dull the emotional punch.

actually takes the majority of its images in black-and-white, with just a strip of color running down the middle of the capture. While the camera has captured Curiosity in color previously ...

NASA’s Curiosity rover captured and transmitted ... A cloud survey conducted in 2021 included images from the black-and-white navigation cameras and provided a look at the structure of clouds ...

While the camera has captured Curiosity in color before, the rover happened to fall within the black and white part of the image this time around. open image in gallery NASA's Curiosity rover ...