NASA’s Curiosity rover has just celebrated its 3000th day on Mars by taking a remarkable photo of the Red Planet.
The rover, which landed on the Martian surface on August 6, 2012, took the image of the Gale crater, including Mount Sharp, the massive mountain in the crater. In a statement accompanying the performance, NASA said that a “series of rock benches” were seen in the image that surprised scientists.
“Our science team is excited to find out how they formed and what they mean for the ancient environment within Gale,” Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement.
This panorama, composed of 122 separate images, was taken by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover on November 18, 2020, the 2,946th Mars day, or sol, of the mission. Credits: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
NASA’S Curiosity MARS ROVER SNAPS BEAUTIFUL PANORAMA OF THE RED PLANET
The panoramic image is the compilation of 122 images taken on November 18, 2020, the 2,946th sol (or day) on Mars. A Mars sol is 24 hours, 39 minutes slightly longer than a day on Earth.
In August, the Curiosity Mars rover celebrated eight years on the Red Planet. At the time, NASA noted the achievement, noting that at that point it had traveled more than 14 kilometers, drilled into 26 rock samples, and collected six samples of soil to determine that ancient Mars was ‘indeed fit for life’.
The rover made a number of discoveries during its time on Mars, including the detection of an ‘extremely high’ level of methane on the Red Planet.
As of August 2019, scientists were still not sure what caused the methane. Some scientists have ruled out that the peak was caused by wind erosion of rocks that trapped the methane through fluid inclusions and fractures on the surface of the Red Planet.
On earth, methane is produced from biological and geological sources.
In 2018, NASA revealed that the rover had found organic molecules.
In addition, the Rover has taken a multitude of photos of the planet, as well as those of Earth and Venus from its vantage point. In August 2020, the rover saw a dust devil traveling across the surface of Mars.
The Curiosity Rover will join the Red Planet through the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover, which will land on the Jezero crater of Mars on 18 Feb 2021. The duration of the mission on the surface of the Red Planet is at least one Martian year or about 687 days.
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