[Ashwin Vasavada] This is the
largest and highest-resolution
panorama the Curiosity
rover has ever taken.
It's made up of almost
1,200 individual images
taken over four days.
The rover's body is too close
for the Mastcam's
telephoto lens.
But we were able to
capture the rover
using the other Mastcam lens.
The higher resolution version is
nearly 1.8 billion pixels.
What I love about this panorama
is that we can zoom way in
and see details far
in the distance.
When you start to do that,
you can see the rim of the
crater we're inside of,
all the way to
the north.
Here's an impressive sight:
20 miles away is
Slangpos crater,
just inside Gale crater's rim.
End to end, Slangpos
is three miles wide!
Something huge must
have struck here.
Whenever I start to think that
Mars looks familiar,
sights like this
dramatic impact crater
remind me that we're looking
at a different planet.
Curiosity is exploring
a clay-bearing region
on the side of a mountain.
This ancient landscape was the
site of lakes and streams
billions of years ago.
They left their clues in the
finely-layered, clay-rich rock.
This crumbling cliff is the edge
of the Greenheugh Pediment.
It's a vast sheet of rock draped
over the side of the mountain.
It must have formed after
the lakes disappeared
and the mountain took
its present shape.
Did it once extend
even farther out?
Curiosity looks a bit like an
abstract painting here.
That's because this is a
360-degree perspective.
The image is warped, like
looking through a fisheye lens.
You can make out some amazing
details on the rover itself.
This is the shadow of
Curiosity's mast.
Here's RAD, an instrument
that detects radiation
from the sun and space.
Thanks to RAD, we
have a better idea
of how to protect future
astronauts on Mars.
Why are there severed tubes
and wires on the rover?
These tubes were part of the
fluid cooling system
that circulated
throughout the spacecraft
that flew the rover to Mars.
These wires were like an
umbilical cord for data.
They were cut during landing.
In spite of the all the dust,
our sundial still
tells us “to explore.”
Trailing behind the rover,
you can see our tracks --
including where we
climbed up a hill.
Even after seven years on Mars,
Curiosity is not done
making tracks yet.
Panoramas like this are like a
window to another world.
Explore it yourself
in a 360 video.
Look for the link
in the description.
