GODMOTHER Rover of curiosity it has just celebrated a major stage – 3,000 days on the surface of Mars. To mark the occasion, the space agency launched a new stunning panorama of the red planet, captured by the rover.
Curiosity landed on Mars on August 6, 2012. However, scientists are tracking their activities on Martian days, called “messengers,” which are slightly longer than the days on Earth, at 24 hours and 39 minutes.
The new epic panorama, launched on Tuesday by the space agency, captures the view of the 96-mile-wide Gale Crater and part of Sharp Mountain, its central mountain. It was taken by the eyes of Curiosity, AKA Camera Mast.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
Curiosity has gradually climbed and explored Sharp Mountain, 3 miles high, since 2014. His most recent discovery, captured in the panorama, is a series of “bank-like rock formations” that can also form due to erosion. as landslides.
The rock layers of the mountain were shaped by water bodies billions of years ago. “The Curiosity team has seen banks in Gale Crater before, but rarely forming such a picturesque group of steps,” NASA said.
“Our science team is excited to learn how they formed and what they mean for the ancient environment of Gale,” said Curiosity project researcher Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Panorama is actually a composite of 122 images made by Curiosity on November 18. Once completed, the rover continued on higher ground, directing its way to the next major layer, called the “sulfate carrier.”
Ever since its mission began, Curiosity has been looking for conditions that could have once sustained life, gathering rock samples along the way to analyze.
He had a number of major accomplishments, including finding evidence that the planet once had persistent liquid water, discovering that the planet was once suitable for life, and finding organic carbon molecules, the building blocks of life. He also found methane present and active in the red planet’s atmosphere, detected radiation levels that could pose health risks to humans, and concluded that Mars’ atmosphere was much thicker than it is today.
Curiosity will soon be joined by his brother rover, Perseverance, when it lands on the red planet in February. Perseverance is designed to bring evidence from Mars back to Earth, marking the first round-trip mission to another planet.
