{"id":407806,"date":"2026-05-02T03:55:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T03:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/407806\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T03:55:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T03:55:30","slug":"nasas-curiosity-and-perseverance-rovers-capture-sweeping-mars-panoramas-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/407806\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers capture sweeping Mars panoramas (video)"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASA has released a pair of sweeping new panoramas from its two active Mars rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance, offering a vivid look at how dramatically different regions of the Red Planet can be \u2014 and how each mission is uncovering a distinct chapter of Martian history.<\/p>\n

The newly released images showcase starkly different landscapes, captured thousands of miles apart by the two robots, which together highlight Mars’<\/a> complex and varied past. Created using hundreds of individual images, the sweeping 360-degree views reveal how water, geology and time have shaped the planet in dramatically different ways, according to a statement<\/a> from NASA.<\/p>\n

Perseverance’s<\/a> panorama was taken of an area nicknamed “Lac de Charmes” near the rim of Jezero Crater<\/a>, which the rover has been exploring since its February 2021 landing. The mosaic, assembled from 980 images collected between Dec. 18, 2025 and Jan. 25, 2026, looks out across rugged terrain carved by ancient water activity. The region once hosted a lake and river delta billions of years ago, making it a prime target in the search for signs of past microbial life<\/a>. Layered rocks and scattered boulders in the panorama preserve evidence of those long-vanished environments.<\/p>\n

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Portion of a 360-degree panorama, featuring low ridges called boxwork formations, captured by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover between Nov. 9 and Dec. 7, 2025. At 1.5 billion pixels, it’s one of the largest panoramas Curiosity has ever taken. (Image credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS)<\/p>\n

“These rocks were here long before water filled the crater,” according to a NASA video<\/a> illustrating the significance of the recent images. “Scientists even believe some rocks in this area formed when Mars was still shaping its crust and atmosphere \u2014 and massive asteroids were pummeling the planet’s surface. This terrain is a time capsule from the earliest period of the solar system<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

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Curiosity, by contrast, offers a view from deep within Gale Crater<\/a>, where it has spent years climbing the foothills of Mount Sharp. Its latest panorama, comprising 1,031 images taken between Nov. 9 and Dec. 7, 2025, highlights a network of low ridges known as “boxwork” formations<\/a>. These surface patterns were formed by groundwater that once flowed through large fractures in the bedrock and left behind minerals that later resisted erosion, creating a crisscrossing landscape for the rover to explore.<\/p>\n

Over the course of its nearly 15-year mission on Mars, Curiosity<\/a> has identified carbonate minerals like siderite that may have trapped carbon dioxide from a once-thicker atmosphere<\/a>, along with an increasingly diverse array of organic molecules<\/a> \u2014 including some of the largest and most complex<\/a> ever detected on the planet \u2014 pointing to a richer history of prebiotic chemistry than previously known, according to the statement from NASA.<\/p>\n

“Each layer is younger than the one below it, creating a geological timeline that records how Mars changed,” officials said in the video.<\/p>\n

\"Space\"<\/p>\n

Though the two rovers are separated by about 2,345 miles (3,775 kilometers) \u2014 roughly the distance between Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. \u2014 the new panoramas effectively place them side by side, offering a planetary comparison in unprecedented detail. The video shared by NASA also stitches together the imagery, guiding viewers across both scenes and simulating what Mars’ ancient past<\/a> may have looked like.<\/p>\n

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Part of a 360-degree panorama NASA\u2019s Perseverance Mars rover captured of a region nicknamed \u201cCrocodile Bridge\u201d on the rim of Jezero Crater. This region holds some of the oldest rocks anywhere in the solar system. (Image credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/ASU\/MSSS)<\/p>\n

The contrast underscores the complementary goals of the missions. Curiosity is focused on understanding whether Mars once offered habitable conditions, studying ancient environments that could have supported microbial life. Perseverance is taking the next step, seeking direct signs of past life<\/a> while collecting rock samples that could one day be returned to Earth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Together, the panoramas reveal what NASA describes as “two sides of Mars” \u2014 not just geographically, but scientifically. One landscape preserves traces of surface water in lakes and rivers; the other exposes the mineral fingerprints of groundwater moving through rock. Both are crucial to reconstructing how Mars transitioned from a wetter, potentially habitable world to the cold, dry planet we see today.<\/p>\n

As the missions continue \u2014 with Curiosity climbing higher along Mount Sharp<\/a> and Perseverance scouting new terrain along Jezero’s rim \u2014 more high-resolution panoramas are expected. Each one adds another piece to the puzzle, bringing scientists closer to understanding the Red Planet’s history and whether it could ever have hosted life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASA has released a pair of sweeping new panoramas from its two active Mars rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-407806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}