See Mars like never before in this highest-resolution panorama ever from the Curiosity rover
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has given us its sharpest-ever view of the Red Planet.
The Curiosity team just released a 1.8-billion-pixel panorama that features Glen Torridon, a region on the flanks of Mars' 3.4-mile-high (5.5 kilometers) Mount Sharp that the rover has been exploring recently.
The new photo is a composite of more than 1,000 images that Curiosity snapped between Nov. 24 and Dec. 1, 2019, when the rover team was taking a break for Thanksgiving.
"While many on our team were at home enjoying turkey, Curiosity produced this feast for the eyes," Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a statement Wednesday (March 4).
"This is the first time during the mission we've dedicated our operations to a stereo 360-degree panorama," he added.
Curiosity took the panorama's constituent photos using the telephoto lens on the rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam). The rover's handlers programmed the photography in advance, instructing Curiosity to take the pictures between noon and 2 p.m. local Mars time each day to ensure consistent lighting conditions, NASA officials said.
A second panorama that the rover team released today also spotlights Glen Torridon. This composite image, acquired using the Mastcam's medium-angle lens, is lower resolution, sporting "only" 650 million pixels.