Curiosity Shoots 1.8 Billion Pixel Image over Four Days

This panorama of the Martian surface will leave you star-struck. NASA released the largest and highest-resolution panorama the Curiosity rover has ever taken on Tuesday, and, at close to 1.8 billion pixels, it gives a hyper-realistic look at Mars. Composed of more than 1,000 images taken over the course of four days (between Nov. 24 and Dec. 1, 2019) — and assembled over subsequent months — the photo shows a region of Mars called “Glen Torridon,” according to a press release. NASA Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada offers further insight into the image in a NASA-produced video, which has already racked up more than 530,000 views on YouTube. “Panoramas like this are like a window to another world,” says Vasavada, encouraging those interested to explore the image further in a 360-degree video.

The photo, below, is interactive, and its high quality allows viewers to zoom in on distant aspects — including the rim of the crater the rover is inside of. Billions of years ago, the crater wasn’t a barren terrain but a lush landscape of lakes and streams, a fact scientists know from analysis of the area’s rock. The image’s 360-degree perspective warps the image, NASA notes, giving it a fisheye lens-like perspective.

Also, NASA revealed the winner in the Mars Rover 2020 naming competition. Alexander Mather, a seventh-grader at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia, won NASA’s “Name the Rover” essay contest. The space agency announced Thursday it will use Alexander's suggested name, Perseverance, for the next Mars rover. The Mars rover is a robotic vehicle with wheels that can easily move around the surface of Mars. The rover is able to provide information to scientists about the chemicals of rocks throughout the planet.

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https://nypost.com/2020/03/05/nasa-releases-stunning-1-8-billion-pixel-photo-of-mars/