NASA's Curiosity robot has spent nearly 10 years exploring Mars alone. While on Mars, Curiosity has observed many amazing sights, including the latest panoramic photos that have just been sent to Earth.
Since landing on Mars in August 2012, Curiosity hasn't stopped exploring its new home to gather scientific data and stunning photos. Recently, Curiosity circled Mount Sharp, a mountain that forms the main peak in Gale Crater.
As usual, at the end of its journey Curiosity always takes 360-degree panoramic photos. But the sight Curiosity saw this time was too special that his team ordered the rover to take two photos a day.
"The mission team was so inspired by the beauty of the landscape, they combined two versions of a black-and-white photo from different times and added color to create a rare postcard of the Red Planet," NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory team said in a statement. (28/11/2021).
Curiosity's panoramic photo of Mars in the morning Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech
This photo was taken above Mount Sharp on November 16, 2021. Curiosity was ordered to take two photos, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
The NASA JPL team then combined these two black and white photos into a mosaic and added the colors orange, blue, and green. The blue color represents the view in the morning, the orange color for the daytime view, and the green color as a combination of the two.
Mount Sharp, which is currently a stopover for Curiosity, is 5.5 km above the surface of Gale Crater. The tip of the crater can be seen on the horizon at a distance of about 30-40 km from Curiosity.
In the center of the photo can be seen a sand dune named 'Sands of Forvie'. On the far right you can see a rock called Mount Rafael Navarro, named after a deceased member of the Curiosity team.
Curiosity landed in Crater Crater to look for possible signs of life in the area. So far, the rover has found traces of lakes and rivers.
In nearly 10 years on Mars, Curiosity has traveled 26 km, and shows no sign of stopping any time soon. This robot has also climbed to a height of 460 meters above where it originally landed.
