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A photograph taken by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover from the floor of Gale Crater, on Aug. 1 and Aug. 2, 2026, the 4,972nd and 4,973rd Martian days, or sols, of the rover’s mission. The photo captures a valley on the side of Mount Sharp, the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer) mountain the rover has been climbing since 2014. (Image credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS)<\/p>\n
One of NASA’s intrepid Mars<\/a> rovers has notched another impressive milestone during its exploration of the Red Planet.<\/p>\n What is it?<\/p>\n NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover<\/a> used its Mastcam camera to capture a panorama made up of 323 individual images. The images were taken on Aug. 1 and Aug. 2, 2026, the 4,972nd and 4,973rd Martian days (or sols) of the rover’s mission, just as Curiosity notched a total of 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) of elevation gain throughout its now 14-year exploration of the Red Planet<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The images show the wide expanse of a broad valley nicknamed “Valle Grande,” a depression on the side of Mars’ Mount Sharp<\/a>, the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer) mountain the rover has been climbing since 2014. The valley’s floor and northern rim can be seen in the distance.<\/p>\n Why is it incredible?<\/p>\n \n A panorama of Mars’ Mount Sharp, captured by NASA’s Curiosity rover from the floor of Gale Crater, on Aug. 1 and Aug. 2, 2026, the 4,972nd and 4,973rd Martian days, or sols, of the rover’s mission. (Image credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS)<\/p>\n Curiosity’s mission has been incredible for a number of reasons. For one, the daring “sky crane” maneuver that NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory used to land the SUV-sized robot on the Red Planet changed Mars landings forever.<\/a><\/p>\n Since then, Curiosity has discovered clues that liquid water once flowed across the surface of Mars<\/a> and has found tantalizing evidence of complex organic molecules on the Red Planet<\/a>, including some that scientists consider to be the “building blocks” of life.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n And even after 14 years of traveling across the Red Planet and suffering considerable damage to its wheels<\/a>, NASA says Curiosity has plenty of exploration and science left to conduct.<\/p>\n\n<\/p>\n