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Space & Astronomy

Curiosity captures 360-degree Mars panorama

By T.K. Randall
August 22, 2016 · Comment icon

14 comments

The view across Mars as photographed by the Curiosity rover. Image Credit: NASA

NASA's exploratory rover has recorded an impressive panoramic image from the surface of the Red Planet.

Created from dozens of separate images joined together, this breathtaking vista is so familiar in appearance that it could have easily been mistaken for a desert landscape here on the Earth.

Captured back at the beginning of the month, the view shows eroded mesas and buttes along the planned route up Mount Sharp which is where the rover will be heading over the coming months.

Join me on #Mars amid Murray Buttes. #360video best on PC or @YouTube app https://t.co/yhP65Vl23u #JourneyToMars pic.twitter.com/yFUjeqQmvw
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) August 19, 2016

A 360-degree video ( on which you can click and drag to look around ) can be viewed below.

Source: USA Today | Comments (14)

Tags: Mars, Curiosity

Recent comments on this story

#5 Posted by Farmer77 9 years ago

crazy how much that looks like my back yard.

#6 Posted by Vox 9 years ago

Is the martian sky blue? I understand that this occurs on Earth as consequence of the similarity in the wavelengths of the colour blue with the particulates in the air and to this extent scattered in the atmosphere. Is this the same case on Mars?

#7 Posted by paperdyer 9 years ago

I wouldn't think so. There isn't enough of an atmosphere to do the refraction of the sunlight. might be a pale grey. Waspie?

#8 Posted by Waspie_Dwarf 9 years ago

The atmosphere of Mars is sufficiently dense to scatter blue light and produce a blue sky a;though the effect would be weak. Indeed scientists working on the NASA Viking landers back in 1976 so expected the Martian sky to be blue that they processed the images to show it as such. It was only when they noticed that some features on the landers themselves were not the correct colour that they realised they had made a mistake. In fact the Martian sky generally appears pinkish.This is because of fine particles of Martian dust suspended in the atmosphere. Sunsets and sunrises on Mars ARE blue.

#9 Posted by Ozfactor 9 years ago

that was a fun experience , what a wonderful universe !

#10 Posted by freetoroam 9 years ago

The minds of the scientists and the technology is fantastic. Years and years or research and extremely clever brains have given us so much wonderful things to see and they still have more to discover. On that note, i just hope people realise these guys do not just look at the pictures without scanning them and examining them to the full, so out of respect to these great minds, some people should think twice before saying they see bigfoot or a Buddha in the pictures.... the odds the scientists at NASA are going to miss something like that are = NONE.. These pictures have been made avai... [More]

#11 Posted by Waspie_Dwarf 9 years ago

We'll said freetoroam. Over the years I have had more conversations with conspiracy theorists than I care to remember that have been in the following form: CT: "NASA is hiding stuff from us." Me: "How do you know? " CT: "Because I have seen the photos." Me: "Which photos?" CT: "The NASA photos." Me: "So you are claiming that NASA is hiding things and your evidence is the images NASA have made public?" CT: "Yes." Me: "When I have finished banging my head against a brick wall I am going to go for a long lie down in a darkened room."

#12 Posted by freetoroam 9 years ago

This is the key point. How people can not figure this one out is beyond me.....its not exactly rocket science!

#13 Posted by LucidElement 9 years ago

yikes, maybe u should put in some grass or plants =)

#14 Posted by paperdyer 9 years ago

That's exactly what I do when I get customers putting a liquid dye in an open tank or leaving the lid off the container and wonder why the strength changes over time then complains why an unopened container of the same lot is weaker when they start using it.

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