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Curiosity on Mars View the NASA rover’s images from the Red Planet.
This undated image provided by NASA shows a rock outcrop in Gale Crater on Mars. Curiosity was set to study the outcrop before heading to its ultimate science destination, a mountain rising from the middle of the crater.
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NASA via AP
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June 5, 2013
A museum employee looks at the “Mars Window,” a projection of images taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, at the “Visions of the Universe” exhibit at the National Maritime Museum in London.
Kirsty Wigglesworth
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AP
Sept. 14, 2012
Curiosity is said to have found evidence of an ancient stream on Mars at a few sites, including the rock outcrop shown in this image, released by NASA on May 30. This geological feature is exposed bedrock made up of fragments cemented together, or what geologists call a sedimentary conglomerate. Scientists theorize that the bedrock was disrupted, giving it the titled angle, most likely via impacts from meteorites. This view of what scientists are calling “Hottah” is a mosaic of images taken by the right (telephoto-lens) camera of the rover’s Mastcam. It has been enhanced for presentation in white-balanced color, which yields a view as if the rock were seen under outdoor lighting conditions on Earth.
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NASA via AFP/Getty Images
March 29, 2013
An image released by NASA on April 22 shows the first holes drilled into rock by Curiosity, with drill tailings around the holes and piles of powdered rock collected from the deeper hole and later discarded, after other portions of the sample had been delivered to analytical instruments inside the rover. The site is on a patch of flat rock called John Klein in the Yellowknife Bay area of Mars's Gale Crater.
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NASA via European Pressphoto Agency
March 22, 2013
This view of Curiosity's left-front and left-center wheels and of marks made by wheels on the ground in the Yellowknife Bay area comes from one of six cameras used on Mars for the first time since the rover landed more than six months ago. The left Navigation Camera (Navcam) linked to Curiosity's B-side computer took this image during the 223rd Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on the Red Planet.
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NASA/JPL-Caltech
Jan. 31, 2013
A photo released by NASA on March 18 shows the internal color of a Martian rock called Sutton Inlier, which the Curiosity rover broke by driving over it. The rock is about five inches wide at the end closest to the camera. This view is calibrated to estimated natural color, or approximately what the colors would look like if we were to view the scene on Mars. The inside of the rock, which is in the Yellowknife Bay area of Gale Crater, is much less red than typical Martian dust.
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NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU via European Pressphoto Agency
Curiosity's Drill in Place for Load Testing Before Drilling The percussion drill in the turret of tools at the end of the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has been positioned in contact with the rock surface in this image from the rover's front Hazard-Avoidance Camera (Hazcam). The drill was positioned for pre-load testing, and the Hazcam recorded this image during the 170th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (Jan. 27, 2013). Other tests with the drill are planned before the first drilling into a rock on Mars to collect a sample of rock material for analysis. In this view, the drill is positioned on a target on a patch of flat, veined rock called "John Klein." The site is within the "Yellowknife Bay" area of Gale Crater. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA/JPL-Caltech
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NASA/JPL-CALTECH
This set of images compares rocks seen by NASA’s Opportunity rover and Curiosity rover at two different parts of Mars. On the left is “Wopmay” rock, in Endurance Crater, Meridiani Planum, as studied by the Opportunity rover. On the right are the rocks of the “Sheepbed” unit in Yellowknife Bay, in Gale Crater, as seen by Curiosity.
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NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/MSSS
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity is pictured in this Feb. 3 self-portrait. A computer glitch, possibly caused by radiation, has put on hold Curiosity’s first attempt to analyze powder from inside an ancient rock, officials said.
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NASA via Reuters
This image shows the Curiosity rover holding a scoop of powdered rock on Mars. The rover recently drilled into a Martian rock for the first time and transferred a pinch of powder to its instruments to analyze the chemical makeup.
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NASA via AP
This image taken by the Mars rover Curiosity and released by NASA on Feb. 9 shows the hole in a rock called “John Klein” where the rover conducted its first sample drilling on Mars. The drilling took place on Feb. 8, or Sol 182, Curiosity's 182nd Martian day of operations. Several preparatory activities with the drill preceded this operation, including a test that produced the shallower hole on the right two days earlier, but the deeper hole resulted from the first use of the drill for rock sample collection.
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NASA/JPL-CalTech/Malin Space Science Systems via AFP/Getty Images
This picture provided by NASA on Jan. 22 shows a Martian rock illuminated by white LEDs. The image is part of the first set of nighttime images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. This rock target in the Yellowknife Bay area of Mars's Gale Crater is called Sayunei. The image covers an area about 1.3 inches by one inch.
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NASA via Reuters
This picture provided by NASA on Dec. 3 shows a view of the third and fourth trenches made by the 1.6-inch-wide scoop on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity in October. The image was acquired by the Mars Hand Lens Imager on Oct. 31 and shows some of the details regarding the properties of the Rocknest wind drift sand. The upper surface of the drift is covered by coarse sand grains about 0.02 to 0.06 inch, which are somewhat cemented to form a thin crust about 0.2 inch thick. Beneath the crust surface is finer sand, which is darker brown compared with the dust on the surface. The left end of each trough wall shows alternating light and dark bands, indicating that the sand inside the drift is not completely uniform. This banding might result from different amounts of infiltrated dust, chemical alteration or deposition of sands of slightly different color.
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AFP/Getty Images
This image released by NASA shows the work site of the NASA Mars rover Curiosity. Results from the first test of Martian soil by the rover show that so far there is no definitive evidence that the Red Planet has the chemical ingredients to support life. Scientists said Dec. 3 that a scoop of sandy soil analyzed by the rover's chemistry lab contained water and a mix of chemicals, but not the complex carbon-based compounds considered necessary for microbial life.
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NASA via AP
This NASA image released Nov. 26 shows Martian rock called Rocknest 3, which combines four images taken by the right-eye camera of the Mast Camera (Mastcam) instrument, which has a telephoto, 100-millimeter-focal-length lens. The component images were taken a few minutes after Martian noon on the 59th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's operations on Mars (evening of Oct. 5). Rocknest 3 is a rock approximately 15 inches long and 4 inches tall, next to the Rocknest patch of wind-blown dust and sand where Curiosity scooped and analyzed soil samples. The Mastcam was about 13 feet from the rock when the component images were taken, providing an image scale of about 0.01 inch (0.3mm) per pixel.The image has been white-balanced to show what the rock would look like if it were on Earth.
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AFP/Getty Images
This NASA panorama image released Nov. 26 shows a mosaic of images taken by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on the NASA Mars rover Curiosity while the rover was working at a site called Rocknest in October and November. The center of the scene, looking eastward from Rocknest, includes the Point Lake area. After the component images for this scene were taken, Curiosity drove 83 feet on Nov. 18 from Rocknest to Point Lake. From Point Lake, the Mastcam is taking images for another detailed panoramic view of the area farther east to help researchers identify candidate targets for the rover's first drilling into a rock. The image has been white-balanced to show what the rocks and soils in it would look like if they were on Earth.
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AFP/Getty Images
A section of a NASA panorama image released Nov. 26 shows a mosaic of images taken by the Mastcam while the rover was working at Rocknest in October and November.
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AFP/Getty Images
A section of a NASA panorama image released Nov. 26 shows a mosaic of images taken by the Mastcam while the rover was working at Rocknest in October and November.
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AFP/Getty Images
A section of a NASA panorama image released Nov. 26 shows a mosaic of images taken by the Mastcam while the rover was working at Rocknest in October and November.
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AFP/Getty Images
A section of a NASA panorama image released Nov. 26 shows a mosaic of images taken by the Mastcam while the rover was working at Rocknest in October and November.
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AFP/Getty Images
A section of a NASA panorama image released Nov. 26 shows a mosaic of images taken by the Mastcam while the rover was working at Rocknest in October and November.
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AFP/Getty Images
The Mars rover Curiosity drove 83 feet eastward during the 102nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission in this image courtesy of NASA released Nov 18.
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Reuters
Images provided by NASA from the mast camera on the Curiosity rover show the upper portion of a wind-blown deposit dubbed Rocknest. The colors in the image at left are unmodified, showing the scene as it would appear on Mars; the image at right has been white-balanced to show what the area would look like under Earth’s lighting conditions.
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NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP
In this image provided by NASA on Oct. 31, the space agency’s Curiosity rover used its Mars Hand Lens Imager to capture the set of thumbnail images that created this full-color self-portrait.
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NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems via Reuters
This graphic provided by NASA shows the first analysis of Martian soil by the chemistry and mineralogy (CheMin) experiment on the Curiosity rover. The image reveals the presence of crystalline feldspar, pyroxenes and olivine, mixed with some amorphous material. The soil sample, taken from a windblown deposit in Gale Crater, where the rover landed, is similar to volcanic soils in Hawaii. Curiosity scooped the soil Oct. 15, and it was delivered to CheMin for analysis Oct. 17.
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NASA/JPL-Caltech/Ames via Herald-Times/AP
This artist's rendering shows Curiosity in the final minute before the rover touched down on Mars.
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NASA/JPL-Caltech via Rockford, Ill., Register Star
This image taken by Curiosity rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager Oct. 29 shows a rock called Et-Then. The rock's informal name comes from the name of an island in Great Slave Lake, in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
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NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS via European Pressphoto Agency
A sample of Martian soil delivered by the robotic arm on NASA's Curiosity rover to its observation tray for the first time is seen in this NASA photo obtained by Reuters four days later. This image, taken by the rover's left Mast Camera, shows the sample on the tray. The tray is three inches in diameter. The sample came from the third scoopful of material collected at the "Rocknest" patch of wind-blown dust and sand.
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NASA via Reuters
This handout photo, made available by NASA on Oct. 24, shows three bite marks left in the Martian ground by the scoop on Curiosity’s robotic arm. The image was taken by the rover's right Navigation Camera. Each of the three bites is about two inches wide.
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NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS via European Pressphoto Agency
This image released by NASA on Oct. 11 shows the wall of a scuff mark the rover made with its wheel in a windblown ripple of Martian sand.
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NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS via AFP/Getty Images
Oct. 15, 2012
Part of the small pit or bite created when Curiosity collected its second scoop of Martian soil at a sandy patch called Rocknest is visible. The bright particle at the center of this image, and similar ones elsewhere in the pit, prompted concern because a small, light-toned shred of debris from the spacecraft had been observed nearby previously. However, the mission's science team assessed the bright particles to be native Martian material rather than spacecraft debris.
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NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS via AP
This image, released by NASA on Oct. 11, shows where the rover aimed two different instruments to study a rock known as "Jake Matijevic." The red dots are where the Chemistry Camera instrument zapped it with its laser on Sept. 21 and Sept. 24. The images were taken by ChemCam to look for the pits produced by the laser. The purple circles indicate where the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer trained its view.
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NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS via AFP/Getty Images
A photo provided by NASA on Oct. 11, and taken by Curiosity a day earlier, shows soil particles that were too big to filter through a sample-processing sieve that is porous only to particles less than 0.006 inch across.
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NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS via European Pressphoto Agency
A photo provided by NASA on Oct. 11, and taken a day earlier, shows fine sand from Mars that was filtered by Curiosity as part of its first “decontamination” exercise.
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NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS via European Pressphoto Agency
Curiosity’s wheel cut a scuff mark into a wind-formed ripple on Oct. 3 at the Rocknest site, giving researchers a better opportunity to examine the particle-size distribution of the material forming the ripple. For scale, the width of the wheel track is about 16 inches.
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NASA/JPL-Caltech via Reuters
On Sept. 30, Curiosity held its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera about 10.5 inches away from the top of a rock called ”Bathurst Inlet” for a set of eight images, which were combined into this merged-focus view of the rock, taken on Curiosity's 54th Martian day on the Red Planet. The Bathurst Inlet rock is dark gray and appears to be so fine-grained that MAHLI cannot resolve grains or crystals in it. This means that the grains or crystals, if there are any at all, are smaller than about 80 microns in size.
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NASA via Reuters
Sept. 14, 2012
This Sept. 14 image, taken by Curiosity and obtained from NASA, shows a Martian rock outcrop in a photo. The outcrop, named “Hottah,” is believed to be an ancient, flowing stream. According to scientists, the outcrop may look like a broken sidewalk, but this geological feature on Mars is actually exposed bedrock made up of smaller fragments cemented together, or what geologists call a sedimentary conglomerate. Scientists theorize that the bedrock was disrupted in the past, giving it the titled angle, most likely via impacts from meteorites. The key evidence for the ancient stream comes from the size and rounded shape of the gravel in and around the bedrock. Hottah has pieces of gravel embedded in it, called clasts, up to a couple inches in size and located within a matrix of sand-size material. Some of the clasts are round in shape, leading the science team to conclude they were transported by a vigorous flow of water. The grains are too large to have been moved by wind.
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NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS via AFP/Getty Images
This image provided by NASA shows a Martian rock outcrop near Curiosity’s landing site that is thought to be the site of an ancient streambed, next to similar rocks shown on earth.
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NASA via AP
On Sept. 13, the Curiosity rover observes Phobos, one of Mars’s two small moons, grazing the sun’s disk on Martian day, or sol, 37. It was a tricky shoot, with protective filters applied to Curiosity’s high-resolution camera. Phobos and its sister moon, Deimos, are closer to Mars than our moon is to Earth, so they move across the sky relatively quickly. Phobos takes less than eight hours to circle Mars. Deimos takes about 30 hours to make the trip.
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NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS via Reuters
This Sept. 7 image, taken by Curiosity's Mast Camera, captures the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) on NASA's Curiosity, with the Martian landscape in the background, on the 32nd Martian sol of operations. A day, or sol, on Mars lasts 24 hours, 39 minutes and 35 seconds. This image let researchers know that the APXS instrument had not become caked with dust during Curiosity's dusty landing. Scientists enhanced the color in this version to show the Martian scene as it would appear under the lighting conditions we have on Earth, which helps in analyzing the terrain.
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NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS via Reuters
This NASA image from Sept. 9 shows the three left wheels of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity combined in two images that were taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI). In the distance is the lower slope of Mount Sharp.
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NASA via Reuters
Part of the layered geological history of Mars is laid bare in this Aug. 23 image from NASA's Curiosity rover showing the base of Mount Sharp, the rover's eventual science destination. Scientists enhanced the color to show the scene under Earth-like lighting conditions, which helps in analyzing the terrain. The pointy mound in the center of the image is about 1,000 feet across and 300 feet high.
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AP
An Aug. 22 NASA image shows tracks left by the Curiosity rover on Mars. The rover made its first move, going forward about 15 feet, rotating 120 degrees and then reversing about 8 feet. Curiosity is about 20 feet from its landing site, now named Bradbury Landing.
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Reuters
An undated image from NASA shows the Mars landing site of the Curiosity rover and destinations scientists want to investigate. Curiosity landed inside Gale Crater at the green dot, within the Yellowknife quadrangle. The team has chosen for it to move toward the region marked by a blue dot that is nicknamed Glenelg. That area marks the intersection of three kinds of terrain. The science team thought the name Glenelg was appropriate because, if Curiosity traveled there, it would visit it twice — both coming and going — and the word Glenelg is a palindrome. Then, the rover will aim to drive to the blue spot marked "Base of Mount Sharp," which is a natural break in the dunes that will allow Curiosity to begin scaling the lower reaches of Mount Sharp.
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NASA via Reuters
A view of the lower reaches of Mount Sharp is shown in a cropped Aug. 18 image taken with a 34mm mast camera on Curiosity. It is likely that Curiosity will begin its ascent at Mount Sharp through hundreds of feet of layered deposits. The lower several hundred feet show evidence of bearing hydrated minerals, based on orbiter observations. The terrain Curiosity will explore is marked by hills, buttes, mesas and canyons on the scale of one-to-three story buildings, very much like the Four Corners region of the western United States. This image shows the colors modified as if the scene were transported to Earth and illuminated by terrestrial sunlight. This processing, called "white balancing," is useful to scientists for recognizing and distinguishing rocks by color in more familiar lighting.
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NASA via Getty Images
This close-up image from Aug. 17 shows the first target NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars aims to zap with its Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument. ChemCam will be firing a laser at this rock, provisionally named N165, and analyzing the glowing, ionized gas, or plasma, that the laser excites. The instrument will analyze that spark with a telescope and identify the chemical elements in the target.
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NASA via Reuters
Aug. 9, 2012
Michael Malin, principal investigator for the Mars Descent Imager with Malin Space Science Systems of San Diego, looks at a data set of the first 360-degree panorama of the Gale Crater landing site taken by NASA's Curiosity rover.
Damian Dovarganes
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AP
This Aug. 6 image taken by Curiosity shows what lies ahead for the rover — its main target, informally called Mount Sharp. The rover's shadow is seen in the foreground, and the dark bands beyond are dunes. Rising in the distance is the highest peak of Mount Sharp at about 3.4 miles, taller than Mount Whitney in California. The Curiosity team hopes to drive the rover to the mountain to investigate its lower layers, which scientists think hold clues to past environmental change. This image was captured by the rover's front left hazard-avoidance camera at full resolution shortly after it landed. It has not yet been linearized to remove the distorted appearance that results from its fisheye lens.
Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity
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AP
NASA's Curiosity rover and its parachute, left, descend to the Martian surface on Aug. 5. The high-resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera captured this image of Curiosity while the orbiter was listening to transmissions from the rover. The inset image is a cutout of the rover, stretched to avoid saturation. The rover is descending toward the etched plains just north of the sand dunes that fringe Mount Sharp.
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NASA/JPL-CalTech/University of Arizona via AP
This is one of the first images from the Curiosity rover after it landed safely on Mars on Aug. 6.
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AP
Miguel San Martin, a chief engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, left, celebrates with Adam Steltzner, Mars Science Laboratory’s entry, descent and landing phase lead engineer, after the successful landing of Curiosity on Aug. 5. They were gathered at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The rover landed at 1:31 a.m. Eastern time, as planned months ago.
Damian Dovarganes
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AP
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden closes his eyes as the rover begins its decent on Aug. 5 to the surface of Mars, inside the Spaceflight Operations Facility for Mars Science Laboratory’s Curiosity rover at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Curiosity is equipped with a nuclear-powered lab capable of vaporizing rocks and ingesting soil, measuring habitability and potentially paving the way for human exploration.
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Reuters
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