NASA's Curiosity rover shares stunning pictures of Mars as it heads towards new site

NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012 looking for signs of alien life, has made significant progress since its exploration began on the red planet. The rover has collected several samples of the Martian soil and rocks and in the process, it has also shared several awe-inspiring pictures of the barren yet intriguing landscape of Mars. Recently, Curiosity has sent another gripping image from our neighbouring planet and the path it is taking to reach its new exploration site, the Maria Gordon Notch.

Taking to Twitter, the rover informed about its journey as it wrote, "I’m getting ready to rove through “Maria Gordon Notch” in the coming sols. I’m travelling to the edge of the valley so I can study the composition of that tall cliff you can see to my right"

Where is the rover headed?

In a report shared by NASA's Exploration Program, it said, "Curiosity is preparing to “shoot the gap” and dash through the Maria Gordon notch in the sols ahead". The image features a 12 m (39 feet) tall cliff on the right side of the image and Curiosity is headed to explore and study the composition of the cliff face. Besides this, the team controlling the rover has also scheduled additional operations which includes the Mastcam sky survey to study airborne dust particles. The above image entails the recent selfie sent by Curiosity which was clicked during its journey towards the Maria Gordon Notch. Check out the dizzying selfie below.

Curiosity's dizzying selfie from Mars

Curiosity took the trippy selfie on Nov. 20, which was the 3,303rd Martian day of its mission, using the Mars Hand Lens Imager or MAHLI at the end of its robotic arm. According to NASA’s description, the rock structure that you see behind the rover in the image is “Greenheugh Pediment” and on the right side of the image is the hill named  “Rafael Navarro Mountain”. Curiosity clicked these selfies while heading towards “Maria Gordon Notch”, the U-shaped opening visible behind the rover at the left side of the image. Interestingly, the 360 degrees selfie is made after stitching together 81 individual photographs.

Image: Twitter/@MarsCuriosity