The Curiosity Rover continues its journey in Mars’ Gale Crater and it just sent back some snaps of Mount Sharp to give the world an update on its progress.
The aforementioned crater is some 96 miles wide according to NASA and Mount Sharp is an approximately five-mile tall mountain within that area.
This region is of particular interest to NASA and others across the globe because it may give us clues as to how Mars’ ancient surface water dried up over time. Beyond that, many scientists are looking for evidence that the planet could support life in some form during that period and after.
It sent back a panorama shot of its current location to give everyone some idea of the terrain it is navigating. You can view that amazing shot here.
Curiosity’s deputy project scientist Abigail Fraeman said of the shot, “The rocks here will begin to tell us how this once-wet planet changed into the dry Mars of today, and how long habitable environments persisted even after that happened.”
As the NASA blog informs us, it is currently winter in the rover’s location on Mars and you can see this in the photograph as it is relatively unobscured by dust. From here, the rover will go on to explore Rafael Navarro Mountain before eventually making its way to what is known as the Greenheugh Pediment, “a slope with a sandstone cap,” that the rover previously visited sometime last year.
You can check out some of our other coverage of Mars at this link.
Have you kept up with NASA’s latest Mars expedition? Let us know your thoughts on the Curiosity Rover in the comments.
Check out some of our other photography news on Light Stalking at this link right here.
[NASA]
