Newly released images from NASA's Mars Curiosity rover show a 12-hour time-lapse of the Red Planet from sunrise to sunset.
NASA's Curiosity rover launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in November 2011 and landed on Mars in August 2012. Since then, the spacecraft has traveled nearly 20 miles (32 kilometers) over the Red Planet and captured more than 1.1 million images. The Curiosity rover's mission is to determine whether Gale Crater, which is believed to be a dry lake, was habitable in the distant past.
A self-portrait of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows the vehicle in the 'Namib Dunes'. There, the rover was active, scraping sand dunes with its wheels and scooping up sand samples for laboratory analysis. (Credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS / Handout)
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Scientists had hoped that time-lapse photography from Mars could reveal cloud and dust devil activity and provide insight into the Red Planet. weather on earth. The images were taken while the spacecraft was parked on November 8, 2023, just over 4,000 sols (Martian days) before the start of its mission.
Although the images did not reveal any weather anomalies, scientists took a closer look at the planet's surface.
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The images were taken by Curiosity's black-and-white hazard avoidance cameras, called Hazcams. NASA scientists use HazCam to avoid rocks, debris, and other threats.
The first video shows images from the front hash cam, revealing a view of the valley of Mount Sharp, the mountain at the center of Gale Crater. Curiosity has been climbing the three-mile-high mountain since 2014, taking soil samples along the way for analysis.
Scientists hope the samples will provide insight into whether Earth can support microbial life. So far, the rover has collected 39 samples. According to NASA.
Timelapse of the surface of Mars from 5:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. local time. (Credit: NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology)
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Additionally, as the sky brightens in the first video, the shadow of the rover and its 7-foot robotic arm can be seen.
The rover is 10 feet long, 9 feet wide and 7 feet tall, making it about the size of a small SUV.
In the second video, the rear hazcam reveals views from the slopes of Mount Sharp to Gale Crater.
The Curiosity spacecraft will move backwards through the Hascam, which will show the distant floor of Mount Sharp and Gale Crater. (Credit: NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology)
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The patchy appearance of the images, especially from the rear-facing Hazcam, is the result of 11 years of Martian dust building up on the camera.
On the 17th frame of the backward timelapse, a small black spot briefly appears and then disappears. This is the result of cosmic rays hitting the camera's sensor. According to NASA.
