CHECK IT OUT: NASA Releases Utterly Astonishing Panoramic Video From Mars

NASA recently released a breathtaking panoramic video offering a new perspective of Mars.

The images were gathered by NASA’s Curiosity rover in July after it climbed over Mount Sharp, a peak five miles high and located in the basin of Mars’ Gale Crater. The rover has been on the planet for nine years as of this month, conducting studies on mineral layouts and whether any of Mars’ environments could have supported life in the ancient past in any of its water sources.

According to NASA’s announcement, it is currently wintertime in the Gale Crater, meaning that Mars’ red dust has settled for the moment and Curiosity has a decent opportunity to gather clear photos. The region is shown to have multiple deposits of clay minerals and sulfates, and studies are examining how the area was affected over time as the local water sources dried up.

“The rocks here will begin to tell us how this once-wet planet changed into the dry Mars of today, and how long habitable environments persisted even after that happened,” said Abigail Fraeman, Curiosity’s deputy project scientist, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

NASA’s announcement goes on to say that Curiosity has made its way through the crater and will soon explore Rafael Navarro Mountain, a peak that was recently given its name in honor of a deceased scientist who worked on its mission. It will also make a return to the Greenheugh Pediment, a sandstone cap that Curiosity summited last year.

Watch above, via NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory