Curiosity rover's 1.8 billion-pixel panorama of Mars

A detailed and inviting view of Mars comes today from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, stitched together from images sent by Curiosity rover on the planet's surface.

This panorama showcases "Glen Torridon," a region on the side of Mount Sharp that Curiosity is exploring. The panorama was taken between Nov. 24 and Dec. 1, 2019, when the Curiosity team was out for the Thanksgiving holiday. Since the rover would be sitting still with few other tasks to do while it waited for the team to return and provide its next commands, the rover had a rare chance to image its surroundings several days in a row without moving.

Composed of more than 1,000 images and carefully assembled over the ensuing months, the larger version of this composite contains nearly 1.8 billion pixels of Martian landscape.

And here's the 360, below.