While you've spent the past 2000 days on planet Earth, our Curiosity rover has been exploring another world entirely. The rover just hit a new milestone: its two-thousandth sol on Mars. A sol is slightly longer than an Earth day at 24 hours and 40 minutes.
This mosaic taken by the rover looks uphill at Mount Sharp, which Curiosity has been climbing since 2014. Highlighted in white is an area with clay-bearing rocks that scientists are eager to explore; it could shed additional light on the role of water in creating Mount Sharp. The mosaic was assembled from dozens of images taken by Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam). It was taken on Sol 1931 back in January.
The formation of clay minerals requires water. Scientists have already determined that the lower layers of Mount Sharp formed within lakes that once spanned Gale Crater's floor. The area ahead could offer additional insight into the presence of water, how long it may have persisted, and whether the ancient environment may have be...
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