NASA’s Mars rover captures stunning picture under dusty Martian skies

Yet again, NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars has sent an exceptional image to Earth, showing a 360-degree view of its surroundings under the dusty clouds.

NASA’s Curiosity rover, which is currently on Vera Rubin Ridge on Mars has snapped an incredible 360° panorama view of its surroundings that are covered by slightly dusty clouds.

PC: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

As NASA described it, the picture includes umber skies that are darkened by a fading global dust storm. The photo also shows a rare view by the Mast Camera of the rover itself, in turn revealing a layer of dust on Curiosity’s deck too. NASA says that Curiosity has never before surveyed an area with so much variation in color and texture.

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The image’s foreground shows the rover’s most recent drill target rock dubbed as ‘Stoer’. The previous two drilling attempts were not really up to expectations as the prior two target rocks were too hard to drill into, ruining efforts to get quality samples.

However, the rover will extract a couple more rock samples later this month. In early October, the rover will head toward the clay- and sulfate-rich deposits up on Mount Sharp.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Red Planet, NASA’s other Opportunity rover is still in its deep slumber even after the settling of the fierce dust storm that was raging on the entire planet for months. Till now, no signal has been received from the rover with scientists still in hope for it to wake up.