See NASA’s Curiosity Rover’s Stunning 360-Degree View Atop “Mont Mercou” on Mars

Mars Curiosity Rover 360 Degrees Mont Mercou

Mars Curiosity Rover 360-degree view on top of Mont Mercou. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover took this 360-degree panorama while atop “Mont Mercou,” a rock formation that offered a view into Gale Crater below. The panorama is stitched together from 132 individual images taken on April 15, 2021, the 3,090th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The panorama has been white-balanced so that the colors of the rock materials resemble how they would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth.

The rover’s Mast Camera, or Mastcam, provided the panorama. Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego built and operates Mastcam. A division of Caltech, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California built the Curiosity rover and manages the Curiosity rover for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.


360° View: Use the arrows in the top left, or click (or touch) and drag your cursor or mouse, to move the view up/down and right/left.

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover took this 360-degree panorama while atop “Mont Mercou,” a rock formation that offered a view into Gale Crater below. The panorama is stitched together from 132 individual images taken on April 15, 2021, the 3,090th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The panorama has been white-balanced so that the colors of the rock materials resemble how they would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. Images of the sky and rover hardware were not included in this terrain mosaic.

The rover’s Mast Camera, or Mastcam, provided the panorama. Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego built and operates Mastcam. A division of Caltech, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California built the Curiosity rover and manages the Curiosity rover for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

31 Comments on "See NASA’s Curiosity Rover’s Stunning 360-Degree View Atop “Mont Mercou” on Mars"

  1. Frederick B Rossman | May 23, 2021 at 10:14 am | Reply

    no criticism intended but the picture did not move on a bit….or maybe it did appear closer. ????

  2. Babu G. Ranganathan | May 23, 2021 at 12:44 pm | Reply

    Babu G. Ranganathan*
    (B.A. Bible/Biology)

    POSSIBLY MILLIONS OF TONS OF VOLCANIC EARTH SOIL REACHED MARS (Newsweek)

    A Newsweek article of September 21, 1998, p.12 mentions the high possibility of Earth life on Mars because of millions of tons of Earth soil ejected into space from ancient volcanic explosions. “We think there’s about 7 million tons of earth soil sitting on Mars”, says USC scientist Kenneth Nealson. “You have to consider the possibility that if we find life on Mars, it could have come from the Earth” [Weingarten, T., Newsweek, September 21, 1998, p.12]. This may also explain why life forms may exist on Venus, again because they originated from Earth.

    In the Earth’s past there was powerful volcanic activity which could have easily spewed dirt and rocks containing microbes and life into outer space which not only could have eventually reached Mars but also ended up traveling in orbit through space that we now know as meteors, comets, and asteroids. This would mean life forms found in meteorites originated from Earth in the first place.

    Secular scientists have a different explanation from creationist scientists on the volcanic eruptions of the Earth’s past. Creation scientists believe, as Genesis teaches, that as the fountains of the deep were opened to release water for the world-wide flood the force of the eruptions could have indeed spewed great amounts of earth soil into space.

    Life could not have evolved. A partially evolved cell would quickly disintegrate under the effects of random forces of the environment, especially without the protection of a complete and fully functioning cell membrane. A partially evolved cell cannot wait millions of years for chance to make it complete and living! In fact, it couldn’t have even reached the partially evolved state.

    Having the right conditions and raw material for life do not mean that life can originate or arise by chance. Stanley Miller, in his famous experiment in 1953, showed that individual amino acids (the building blocks of life) could come into existence by chance. But, it’s not enough just to have amino acids. The various amino acids that make-up life must link together in a precise sequence, just like the letters in a sentence, to form functioning protein molecules. If they’re not in the right sequence the protein molecules won’t work. It has never been shown that various amino acids can bind together into a sequence by chance to form protein molecules. Even the simplest cell is made up of many millions of various protein molecules.

    The probability of just an average size protein molecule arising by chance is 10 to the 65th power. Mathematicians have said any event in the universe with odds of 10 to 50th power or greater is impossible! The late great British scientist Sir Frederick Hoyle calculated that the odds of even the simplest cell coming into existence by chance is 10 to the 40,000th power! How large is this? Consider that the total number of atoms in our universe is 10 to the 82nd power.

    Also, what many don’t realize is that Miller had a laboratory apparatus that shielded and protected the individual amino acids the moment they were formed, otherwise the amino acids would have quickly disintegrated and been destroyed in the mix of random energy and forces involved in Miller’s experiment.

    Miller’s experiment produced equally both left-handed and right-handed amino acids, but all living things strictly require only left-handed amino acids. If a right-handed amino acid gets into the chain the protein won’t work.

    There is no innate chemical tendency for the various amino acids to bond with one another in a sequence. Any one amino acid can just as easily bond with any other. The only reason at all for why the various amino acids bond with one another in a precise sequence in the cells of our bodies is because they’re directed to do so by an already existing sequence of molecules found in our genetic code.

    Of course, once you have a complete and living cell then the genetic code and biological machinery exist to direct the formation of more cells, but how could life or the cell have naturally originated when no directing code and mechanisms existed in nature? Read my Internet article: HOW FORENSIC SCIENCE REFUTES ATHEISM.

    Visit my newest Internet site: THE SCIENCE SUPPORTING CREATION

    Author of popular Internet article, TRADITIONAL DOCTRINE OF HELL EVOLVED FROM GREEK ROOTS

    * I have had the privilege of being recognized in the 24th edition of Marquis “Who’s Who In The East” for my writings on religion and science, and I have given successful lectures (with question and answer time afterwards) defending creation from science before evolutionist science faculty and students at various colleges and universities.

  3. Who let the creationist idiot in here?

  4. How to believe that the picture is of Mars?

  5. Dr. Ken Towe | May 24, 2021 at 7:15 am | Reply

    When will this very expensive toy stop acting like a Martian tour guide handing out postcards and start doing the exploratory science it was designed for? Look for life? Look for sediments that might plausibly contain organic matter?
    So far, very little of that, if any, has been found.

  6. Dr. Ken Towe | May 24, 2021 at 7:24 am | Reply

    “We think there’s about 7 million tons of earth soil sitting on Mars”, says USC scientist Kenneth Nealson. “You have to consider the possibility that if we find life on Mars, it could have come from the Earth”

    That’s a silly 1998 comment because any soil already sitting there would contain the residues of organic matter, carbonate limestones, quartz and clay minerals. Easily seen and examined with the technology on board Curiosity and now on Perseverance.

  7. Hey NASA who’s this man and the squirrel in this picture?

  8. Peter Colley | May 24, 2021 at 9:13 am | Reply

    Can’t move picture

  9. These comments don’t have a place in this article. Very inappropriate.

  10. Gary Perruzzi | May 24, 2021 at 12:15 pm | Reply

    How come we can get HD quality pictures/videos from Mars, but only out of focus and blurry pictures/videos of UFOs from our most sophisticated jets and airliners here on earth?

  11. William laing-smith | May 24, 2021 at 12:47 pm | Reply

    When can I go there it’s so beautiful and amazing

  12. Look for the greenscreen effect first. YES, it’s there.

  13. Message says “video is private” so I am telling the 3-dot menu by the headline in news.google dot com not to show any articles from scitechdaily anymore.

  14. Fake news if we’re that good why can’t we ever see earth like this instead of a picture off fake earth NASA made up of kidy fiddlers

  15. So they’re just going to pretend that there isn’t a webcam recording the rover in the left corner and just pretend there isn’t an ancient warrior image imposed on the ground in the middle left area which is oddly right above a dust covered spigot?

  16. Middle right area* I meant. Gah.

  17. Humans have been going to Mars for decades.

  18. Curiosity killed the cat…

  19. Matthew Bradley | May 27, 2021 at 4:56 pm | Reply

    Looks like san Bernardino to me

  20. Hey Babu ! It says comments it doesn’t say show us your degree ! If your trying to impress us ? You failed !

  21. Shaliza LaCombe | May 28, 2021 at 6:50 pm | Reply

    I love that Babu❤🙂

  22. To all kind hearted person out there please i need help any amount is accepted for my hospital bills i cant work now so i dont have income so im asking for any amount thank you heres my paypal
    Paypal.me/JQuisquino

  23. Cali dessert is looking nice NASA.

  24. Why all the smarmy comments? How about a little pride and admiration for all the talent and hard work?

  25. The naivety and gullibility of the average human being is pathetic..

  26. I like how it says, the camera has been white balanced to resemble earth, this is on earth. Wake up.

  27. They will never show the good stuff. Just keep blaring it out. So many blurred photos from the hd generation !

  28. We weren’t intended to go there why do we persist on bringing more harm to world, (JUST MY OPTION)

  29. Funny how they claim they to have all these pictures of Mars but we don’t have even one real picture of the Earth from space.
    Better yet take a picture of buildings upside down on the planet.

  30. NASA can’t EVEN capture the Earth in 1 photo , they have to stich together strips images but your cameras are able to picture Mars .. FAKE !
    FAKE ! FAKE !

  31. America is just Great.Continue to lead the world.

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