NASA releases panoramic images revealing what a day on Mars looks like

NASA has released a new “postcard” from Mars, combining images captured by its Curiosity rover at different times of day to create a panoramic view of the Red Planet.

The images were taken while Curiosity was parked near a sandy geographical feature nicknamed “Chocolatal” as the rover continued exploring the lower foothills of Mount Sharp. The photographs were captured in the morning and evening several days apart before being transmitted to Earth and merged by NASA technicians to create a single landscape image.

Colour was then added as an artistic interpretation of the scene, with blue representing the morning view and yellow depicting the later part of the day. Curiosity is currently exploring the lower slopes of Mount Sharp, a mountain rising about three miles above the floor of Gale Crater, which measures approximately 96 miles across.

The rim of Gale Crater can be faintly seen on the horizon in the new image, which looks towards the crater floor. The morning panorama also marked a significant milestone for Curiosity, coinciding with its 5,000th Martian day, known as a sol, since beginning its mission on the planet. A Martian day is approximately 39 minutes longer than a day on Earth.

The latest postcard follows another major panorama released by NASA last month, which was assembled from 323 individual images captured by Curiosity’s Mast Camera between August 1 and 2. Those images showed a valley known as “Valle Grande”, with colour adjustments made to represent lighting conditions closer to how they might appear to the human eye.

The panorama also captured Curiosity’s tracks stretching into the distance, providing a visual record of the rover’s journey through the Martian landscape. Approximately the size of a car, Curiosity was built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is managed from Pasadena, California.

The rover has been exploring Mars since 2012 as part of NASA’s efforts to investigate whether the planet once had environmental conditions capable of supporting microbial life. Curiosity reached another milestone in August when it accumulated one kilometre of elevation while climbing the slopes of Mount Sharp.

During its years of exploration, the rover has also collected 42 powdered rock samples from holes drilled into the Martian surface using equipment attached to its robotic arm. The new postcard provides another detailed look at the environment Curiosity has been exploring for more than a decade while highlighting the changing appearance of the Martian landscape between morning and evening.