NASA’s Curiosity rover just celebrated its 3,000th day on Mars by taking a remarkable picture of the Red Planet.
The rover, which landed on the Martian surface on Aug. 6, 2012, took the image of the Gale Crater, including Mount Sharp, the massive mountain located inside the crater. In a statement accompanying the accomplishment, NASA said there were a “series of rock ‘benches'” seen in the image that surprised scientists.
“Our science team is excited to figure out how they formed and what they mean for the ancient environment within Gale,” said Curiosity’s project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement.
This panorama, made up of 122 individual images stitched together, was taken by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover on November 18, 2020, the 2,946th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
