NASA's Curiosity rover sends stunning new panorama from high on Mars' Mount Sharp

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NASA's Curiosity rover has sent back a striking new "postcard" from high on the slopes of the Red Planet's Mount Sharp, offering a dramatic look at the rugged Martian landscape the robot has been exploring for more than a decade.

The recent image is a composite panorama captured in November 2025 by Curiosity's navigation cameras, spanning two Martian days, or sols, of the mission — Sols 4,722 and 4,723. Black-and-white images were taken at 4:15 p.m. local Mars time on Sol 4,722 and again at 8:20 a.m. on Sol 4,723.

Both were then combined into a single view that was tinted with cool blue and warm yellow hues to show how lighting conditions change over the course of a Martian day. "Adding color to these kinds of merged images helps different details stand out in the landscape," NASA officials said in a statement releasing the new image.

In this new view, Curiosity was positioned on a ridge overlooking a region called the boxwork formation. This region contains intricate networks of mineral-rich ridges left behind when groundwater once flowed through cracks in the rock billions of years ago.

Over time, wind erosion stripped away softer material, leaving the hardened mineral veins exposed. Scientists are interested in these features because they preserve evidence of ancient water activity and changing environmental conditions on Mars, according to the statement.

Wheel tracks visible in the foreground show the rover's slow, deliberate progress as it continues climbing Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) mountain inside Gale Crater that has served as Curiosity's primary science target since landing in 2012.

The rover has been carrying out hands-on science at this location. Using the drill at the end of its robotic arm, Curiosity recently collected a rock sample from the top of the ridge at a site dubbed "Nevado Sajama." The panorama looks north across the boxwork formations and down the slopes of Mount Sharp toward the floor of Gale Crater. The crater's rim is visible on the distant horizon, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) away, while wheel tracks mark a shallow hollow behind the rover where Curiosity previously drilled another sample at a site called "Valle de la Luna."

Curiosity has been focused on studying boxwork terrain and other sedimentary layers that record Mars' transition from a wetter, potentially habitable world to the cold, arid planet seen today. By analyzing rock chemistry, textures and mineral veins, the rover continues to piece together the story of how water once moved through Gale Crater — and whether those ancient environments could have supported microbial life.

In recent months, the mission team has been making greater use of new multitasking and autonomy capabilities, allowing the rover to conduct science observations while simultaneously communicating with orbiters overhead. These improvements make the rover more efficient, helping to maximize science output from Curiosity's aging nuclear power source.

More than 13 years after its arrival on Mars, Curiosity is still delivering both breathtaking views and valuable science, proving that the Red Planet has many more stories left to tell.