NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Captures Highest-Resolution Panorama, details Inside

NASA's Curiosity rover has been giving us a visual treat of Mars since it landed in 2012. Curiosity rover has so far clicked more than 1,000 images of the red planet. Now, NASA's Curiosity rover has captured its highest-resolution panorama yet of the Martian surface. Yes, you read it right. It is to be noted that composed of more than 1,000 images taken during the 2019 Thanksgiving holiday and carefully assembled over the ensuing months, the composite contains 1.8 billion pixels of Martian landscape.

The rover's Mast Camera, or Mastcam, used its telephoto lens to produce the panorama, however, it relied on its medium-angle lens to produce a lower-resolution, nearly 650-million-pixel panorama that includes the rover's deck and robotic arm. Interestingly, both panoramas showcase "Glen Torridon," a region on the side of Mount Sharp that Curiosity is exploring.

"While many on our team were at home enjoying turkey, Curiosity produced this feast for the eyes," said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which leads the Curiosity rover mission. "This is the first time during the mission we've dedicated our operations to a stereo 360-degree panorama," he added.  

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It is worth mentioning here that in the year 2013, Curiosity produced a 1.3-billion-pixel panorama using both Mastcam cameras. In October last year, NASA's Curiosity rover found an ancient oasis on Mars.

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