Curiosity Takes New Pictures of Mars' Surface and Sky

NASA's Curiosity rover has recently taken many new images of the Martian surface and atmosphere. Operating since 2012, Curiosity is NASA's longest lasting rover on Mars, lasting over 14 years from its deployment in 2012 to the present day. Recently, Curiosity has gathered many perspective photos of the Martian landscape. While many are in black and white engineering cameras, some are in full color, false color, or color graded.

The surface of Mars ranges from 70 degrees Fahrenheit during summer (near the equator) to -225 degrees Fahrenheit at its lowest. Mars can experience local and world-wide dust storms, which can cover the surface with a orange haze from an observers perspective. In fact, the red-brown color of the surface is due to iron oxide, also commonly known as rust. Mars has about 1/3 the gravity of Earth and dry ice and water ice confined to the poles of the planet.

The air pressure on Mars is 6 to 7 millibars, which is only 6-7% of Earth's atmosphere sea level. It is well below the Armstrong limit, where water boils at room temperature due to low pressure. These hexagonal structures are formed from the thermal cycles of Martian regolith, closely resembling mud cracks on Earth.