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NASA’s Curiosity rover captured this panorama of Mars in November 2020.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity rover landed on Mars on August 6, 2012 and just celebrated a historic 3,000 Martian-day anniversary of living the good scientific life on the red planet.
A Martian day, called a “sun,” is slightly longer than a day on Earth, registering just over 24 hours and 39 minutes. Scientists track Curiosity’s activities based on suns. For example, the raw images taken by the rover are tagged with the sun number, so a photo taken on its anniversary would be tagged with “Sol 3000” as well as the corresponding Earth date.
NASA marked the special occasion with the release of a glorious panorama on Tuesday. The panoramic mosaic view of Gale Crater on Mars shows part of Mount Sharp, the massive central mountain within the crater. “Geologists were intrigued to see a series of rock ‘banks’ in the most recent mission outlook,” NASA said in a statement.
The wide panorama is made from 122 images that the rover took on November 18, 2020, which was the Martian sun 2946.
Curiosity is currently directed towards a region of the crater known as the “sulfate carrier unit”. “Sulfates, like gypsum and epsom salts, generally form around water as it evaporates, and they are yet another clue to how climate and life prospects changed nearly 3 billion years ago,” he said. NASA in describing the rover’s journey to this new area. .
NASA’s only functioning Mars rover will soon join its next-generation sibling on the planet when the Perseverance rover arrives in February. Long-lived Curiosity will continue its mission to study the ancient environmental conditions of the red planet.
For the next 3,000 soles.
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