NASA's Curiosity Rover landed on Mars on August 6, 2012 and just celebrated a milestone of 3,000 Mars days in which it led the good scientific life on the red planet.
A Mars day - called "Sol" - is a little longer than a day on Earth and lasts a little over 24 hours and 39 minutes. Scientists use sols to track Curiosity's activities. For example, raw images taken by the rover are provided with the Sol number, so that a photo taken on its anniversary is provided with "Sol 3000" and the corresponding earth date.
NASA marked the special occasion with the release of a magnificent panorama on Tuesday. The picturesque mosaic view of Gale Crater on Mars shows part of Mount Sharp, the massive central mountain in the crater. "Geologists were intrigued to see a series of rock banks in the mission's most recent panorama," NASA said in a statement.
The extensive panorama consists of 122 images that the rover took on November 18, 2020, namely Mars Sol 2946.
Curiosity is currently directed towards a region of the crater known as the "Sulphate Containing Unit". "Sulphates like gypsum and Epsom salts normally form around the water as it evaporates, and they're another clue of how the climate and life prospects changed nearly 3 billion years ago," NASA described the rover's journey in this new area.
NASA's only working Mars rover will soon be supported by its next-generation sibling on the planet Endurance Rover arrives in February. The long-lived curiosity will continue its mission to examine the ancient environmental conditions on the red planet.
For the next 3,000 sols.
Follow CNET's 2021 Space Calendar to stay up to date with the latest space news this year. You can even add it to your own Google Calendar. Source link
