Red dawn?<\/p>\n
NASA has released stunning images of Mars at dawn, revealing the planet\u2019s mysterious cliffs in unprecedented detail.<\/p>\n
The interplanetary photo-op comes courtesy of the space agency\u2019s Curiosity rover, which has been combing the surface of the Red Planet since it was dispatched there in 2012<\/a>. <\/p>\n Wind-carved crags called yardangs are shown in a zoomed-in crop of a broader panorama captured by NASA\u2019s Curiosity Mars rover on Mars. NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS \/ SWNS<\/p>\n Snapped via the vehicle\u2019s Mastcam\u00a0on August 11 at 8:30 am Martian time<\/a>, the photos show a dark blue foreground with distant cliffs illuminated by sunlight \u2014 like the interstellar version of an 1800s sublime landscape painting.<\/p>\n \u201cThis scene has a wildness that reminds me of a road trip through Monument Valley, Arizona,\u201d said Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada of NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, Reuters reported. <\/a>\u201cYou can almost feel the silence and the endless open space under the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n This marks the most detailed depiction to date of the yardangs, planetary formations that extend for about 10 miles across the northwestern reaches of Mount Sharp<\/a>.<\/p>\n Curiosity has been scaling this 3-mile-high Martian mountain since 2014, notably reaching 0.6 miles in elevation \u2014 the most ever ascended on Mars.<\/p>\n As it draws nearer, scientists hope the exploration bot can shed some light on the Yardang layer, which has long baffled researchers.<\/p>\n Mars\u2019 cold and inhospitable surface was once covered with bodies of water. ESA\/MPS et al. \/ SWNS<\/p>\n For one, these anomalous monoliths look quite different from all the terrain the rover has roamed before, according to Vasavada.<\/p>\n Despite forming one billion years ago \u2014 roughly the same time as the mountain on which it sits \u2014 this sedimentary patina \u201cdoesn\u2019t appear to be part of the continuous stack of layers that make up the layer-cake of Mount Sharp,\u201d the scientist observed. <\/p>\n NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover has been climbing Mount Sharp since 2014. NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS et al. \/ SWNS<\/p>\n \u201cIt was added on a little later,\u201d Vasavada explained. \u201cIt\u2019s above what geologists call an unconformity: a gap in time where previous layers eroded down before new layers were deposited on top.\u201d<\/p>\n The scientist suspects that the crust was originally wind-blown sediment blown there by volcanic activity. <\/p>\n When this dust hardened into rock, \u201ceons of wind carved \u200cup the rock layer into ridges called yardangs,\u201d said Vasavada.<\/p>\n Curiosity is projected to reach the yardangs sometime in 2027-28, whereupon it will use its instruments to sample and analyze the sediment, thereby painting a clearer picture of its provenance.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what makes it exciting to reach,\u201d Vasavada said in a NASA release<\/a>. \u201cNo one is sure exactly what created this layer.\u201d<\/p>\n Prior studies of Mount Sharp revealed that each layer corresponded to a different geological period, providing insight into the lakes, streams and other water bodies <\/a>that once covered the surface when Mars was lusher and warmer than the desolate rock it is today.<\/p>\n