Photo of the overwhelming selfie of Curiosity probe right on Mars

The new 360-degree panorama of the Mars Curiosity is probably the best shot it has ever taken.

The images used to create this mosaic picture were taken by Curiosity on August 9, 2018, at Vera Rubin Ridge - where the probe has been operating for months. The image shows the typical butter-brown sky of the Red Planet, though it looks a bit darker than usual by a scattered dust storm across the planet.

Curiosity's partner, the vessel probed Opportunity, is currently on the other side of the planet, where the storm is going much worse. NASA had to ship Opportunity into hibernation because this dust storm caused the sky to become too dark, so it was difficult for the probe's solar panels to collect energy. It is still not known when Opportunity will return to normal operating status - or may never be again!

360-degree panorama picture captured by the ship Curiosity.

Fortunately, the Curiosity does not seem to be affected by the storm, but as far as the image above shows, a large amount of dust has covered the surface of the ship. The probe landed on Mars on August 6, 2012, and had . accumulated dust since that time, of course there was no one beside it to clean it.

NASA says Curiosity has never explored an area with so many colors and diverse terrain.

"This mountain range is not monolithic - it has two distinct areas, each of which is very diverse in color" - Ashwin Vasavada, scientist in the Curiosity project at NASA's rocket rocket lab in Pasadena , California said - "Some colors can be seen quite well, some colors can only be seen when we look at the near-infrared beam, because it surpasses what the human eye can see. Some seem as related to the hardness of rock in the area ".

NASA's Curiosity probe on Mars.

Indeed, hard rocks on Mars are one of the subjects that NASA is interested in studying at this time. Curiosity's most recent drilling effort has been quite successful, but the two attempts to extract previous rock samples did not yield any positive results, because the ship's drill could not penetrate some unusual hard rock. . This 6-wheel probe has used a new drilling method in the last few months to solve mechanical problems. By this time, new drilling techniques have achieved satisfactory results, achieving the same efficiency as the previous method. NASA said that the old technology would not be able to penetrate hard rocks, and the failure to drill hard rocks was not the limit of the new method alone.

NASA currently has no way to know how hard a rock is before drilling, and the probe's driver family is playing . predictions based on trained knowledge. . NASA wrote that:

"The best way to know why these rocks are so hard is to drill them into powder for analysis in the two laboratories inside the probe. Analysis may reveal what is playing. It is like cement adhesion in this area of ​​the mountains, making it possible to stand despite the erosion of extremely harsh winds on the Red Planet. flowing through the mountains from ancient times has a role to play in enhancing the hardness of rocks, maybe these water pipes are the distribution pipes of cement that resist to wind around the mountains.

Many areas in the mountains contain hematite, a mineral formed in the country. There are very strong hematite signals that have attracted the attention of NASA satellites. Is there some kind of variation in hematite that has led to the formation of these unusual hard rocks? Is there anything special in the red rocks of the mountains that make them so strong? "

During the arrival time, the probe will extract a few rock samples. By the beginning of October, it would move to the higher Mount Sharp area on the road towards areas of high clay and sulfite materials. Certainly it will collect some important scientific data, but we also hope to see more photos as this probe is taken from higher areas.