NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, to capture this mound of rock nicknamed East Cliffs on May 7, 2022, the 3,466th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The mound, on Mount Sharp, has a number of naturally occurring open fractures – including one roughly 12 inches (30 centimeters) tall and 16 inches (40 centimeters) wide, similar in size to a dog door. These kinds of open fractures are common in bedrock, both on Earth and on Mars. Curiosity is currently investigating a region on Mount Sharp that may hold evidence of a major change from wetter to drier conditions in Ma


NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, to capture this mound of rock nicknamed East Cliffs on May 7, 2022, the 3,466th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The mound, on Mount Sharp, has a number of naturally occurring open fractures – including one roughly 12 inches (30 centimeters) tall and 16 inches (40 centimeters) wide, similar in size to a dog door. These kinds of open fractures are common in bedrock, both on Earth and on Mars. Curiosity is currently investigating a region on Mount Sharp that may hold evidence of a major change from wetter to drier conditions in Mars' early history. The main panorama included here was stitched together using 113 images from Mastcam's left lens. The image is processed to approximate the color and brightness of the scene as it would look to the human eye under normal daytime conditions on Earth.


Size: 7630px × 2295px
Photo credit: © NASA/piemags / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: ., laboratory, mars, science