The Curiosity Rover, which was made by NASA, a space agency, released an incredible 1.8 billion pixel panorama picture of Mars, which is considered as the highest-resolution panorama of Mars up to this date.

The Curiosity rover, which is the same size of a car, snapped over 1000 high-quality pictures of the Martian landscape to make the panorama picture.

The images were sent back to Earth, where teams carefully assembled them for over months to create a 360-degree panorama view.

Ashwin Vasavada, a project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said, “While many on our team were at home enjoying turkey, Curiosity produced this feast for the eyes.”

Ashwin added, “This is the first time during the mission we’ve dedicated our operations to a stereo 360-degree panorama.”

The latest release marks the largest panorama image the Curiosity rover has ever taken.

The picture is so detailed that you can zoom in and see the three-mile-long Slangpos crater and a crumbling cliff known as the Greenheugh Pediment.

Nearly 1200 pictures were taken over the course of 4 days so the panorama picture can be made by the experts here on earth.

The images were taken between November 24 to December 1, 2019.

A statement that was released by NASA said, “The rover’s Mast Camera, or Mastcam, used its telephoto lens to produce the panorama.”

The statement added, “Meanwhile, it relied on its medium-angle lens to produce a lower-resolution, nearly 650-million-pixel panorama that includes the rover’s deck and robotic arm.”

What Is The Job Of Curiosity?

Curiosity is a car-sized rover that is designed to explore the crater Gale on Mars as part of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Mission.

Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26, 2011, and landed on Aeolis Palus inside Gale on Mars on August 6, 2012.

The Bradbury Landing site was less than 2.4 kilometers away from the center of the rover’s touchdown target after a 560 million kilometer journey.

In December 2012, the 2-year mission of Curiosity was extended and on August 5, 2017, NASA celebrated the 5^th anniversary of the Curiosity rover landing. The rover is still operational and as of March 8, 2020, Curiosity has been on mars for 2697 sols, which is equivalent to 2770 days on planet earth.