NASA Releases Mars Panorama Showing Morning and Evening Views

NASA has made public a fresh Mars "postcard," created by merging pictures taken by the Curiosity rover at separate points in the day into one wide view of the Red Planet. The rover was parked beside a sandy terrain feature informally called "Chocolatal" when the images were recorded, while it kept studying the lower slopes of Mount Sharp. The photos were taken during morning and evening hours a few days apart, then sent to Earth, where NASA specialists combined them into a single landscape. Colour was later applied as an artistic rendering: blue indicates the morning scene, while yellow shows the later portion of the day. Curiosity is presently examining the lower parts of Mount Sharp, a peak that stands roughly three miles above the base of Gale Crater, which spans about 96 miles. The edge of Gale Crater is visible only faintly along the horizon in the new image, which faces the crater floor. The morning panorama also coincided with a notable achievement for Curiosity: its 5,000th Martian day, or sol, since its mission on the planet began. A Martian day lasts about 39 minutes longer than one on Earth. The newest postcard comes after another large panorama NASA released the previous month, which was put together from 323 separate photographs taken by Curiosity's Mast Camera on August 1 and 2. Those images depicted a valley called "Valle Grande," and colour changes were used to reflect lighting conditions nearer to what human eyes might see. The panorama also showed Curiosity's wheel tracks extending into the distance, creating a visual account of the rover's path across the Martian surface. About the size of an automobile, Curiosity was constructed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is operated from Pasadena, California. The rover has been studying Mars since 2012 as part of NASA's work to determine whether the planet ever had environmental conditions that could have supported microbial life. Curiosity hit another milestone in August when it gained one kilometre of elevation while ascending Mount Sharp. Over its years of exploration, it has gathered 42 powdered rock samples from holes drilled into the Martian surface with equipment mounted on its robotic arm. The new postcard offers another close look at the terrain Curiosity has investigated for over a decade, while showing how the Martian landscape changes in appearance from morning to evening.