The big picture: Curiosity isn't just a sight-seeing expedition. 1 of the projection'southward principal goals is to study the surroundings to learn more near how Mars' climate inverse over fourth dimension. "The rocks here volition begin to tell us how this once-moisture planet inverse into the dry Mars of today, and how long habitable environments persisted even after that happened," said Curiosity Deputy Project Scientist Abigail

Every bit we humans grapple with the possibility (or impossibility) of extraterrestrials visiting World, NASA has essentially been doing the same thing on other planets for decades now. Have nearby neighbor Mars, for case.

NASA'southward Marvel rover left our home planet in late 2022 and touched down on the Scarlet Planet in August 2022. The car-sized rover has since spent nearly a decade traversing the rocky surface of Mars, driving more than than 16 miles in the process and sending back detailed images of everything information technology'south seen along the way.

In a contempo video published on YouTube, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory shared a fascinating panorama showcasing the rover's current position 1,500 anxiety to a higher place the landing site on Mount Precipitous.

(Curiosity recently drilled its 32nd stone sample pigsty.)

From this vantage bespeak, nosotros get a solid await of a darker region of sand created from cleaved pieces of volcanic rock. Fraeman besides points out how clear the air is due to it being wintertime on Mars, allowing us to see to the rim of Gale crater roughly 20 miles away.

Bated from a brief scare in 2022, Curiosity has been performing as expected. So long as that continues to be the example, NASA will likely keep using the rover to learn as much as information technology can about the Ruby Planet. Its predecessor, Opportunity, managed to survive for more 14 years before information technology finally scrap the bullet and was declared dead in 2022.