NASA’s Curiosity rover captures new photos of the Martian landscape

NASA’s Curiosity rover recently captured a sweeping panorama of Mars ’ Gale Crater under exceptionally favorable viewing conditions, offering one of the clearest looks yet at the vast Martian basin.

The panorama, composed of 44 images taken by the rover’s Mastcam instrument, shows views of the crater floor with sights of the northern rim dozens of miles away.

The data was stitched together at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where colors were adjusted to replicate what the scene would look like to the human eye under Earth-like lighting.

Curiosity has been exploring Gale Crater since August 2012, nearly a year after its launch from Florida ’s Space Coast in late 2011.

The rover’s primary mission continues to be determining whether Mars ever produced environment