Over March, NASA’s Curiosity approached and studied a peculiar rock formation. Nicknamed Mount Mercou, after a French mountain, the drop is estimated to be more than 6 meters (about 20 feet) and shows layers upon layers of ancient sediments that have now been turned into rock. An incredible geological find.
Mount Mercou is part of a region of Mount Sharp, where Curiosity climbs slowly, known as the clay-bearing unit. The industrious wanderer now moves to the sulfur-bearing unit. The current area is named after features in the French region around the city of Nontron, due to the discovery in the Martian soil of the mineral nontronite.
During this month, Curiosity did exciting science and great photography. It cut two images of Mount Mercou from two different angles, allowing the construction of a stereoscopic 3D version, as well as one of his classic selfies.
The selfie actually consists of 60 images taken by Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the rover’s robot arm on March 26, which was the 3070 sol (Mars day) that Curiosity spent on Mars.
The past few weeks have yielded incredible footage of clouds on Mars and new panoramas of the regions, and we can’t wait to see what Curiosity is going to find next.