Curiosity Looks Back Toward Its Landing Site

Aug 7, 2025 - 03:02

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Curiosity Looks Back Toward Its Landing Site

A black and white photo of the Curiosity rover on Mars. Curiosity is at bottom right. The rover's nuclear power source is visible; it is lined with rows of white fins at the back of the rover. Tracks trail off into the distance. Curiosity's landing site is on the horizon at top left. Mars' terrain is rocky.

This view of tracks trailing NASA’s Curiosity rover was captured July 26, 2025, as the rover simultaneously relayed data to a Mars orbiter.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Curiosity rover captured a view of its tracks on July 26, 2025. The robotic scientist is now exploring a region of lower Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain. The pale peak of the mountain can be seen at top right; the rim of Gale Crater, within which the mountain sits, is on the horizon at top left. Curiosity touched down on the crater floor 13 years ago.

Recently, the rover rolled into a region filled with boxwork formations. Studying these formations could reveal whether microbial life could have survived in the Martian subsurface eons ago, extending the period of habitability farther into when the planet was drying out. Read more about the detective work Curiosity is doing on Mars.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech