NASA’s Curiosity rover has captured some amazing images since landing on Mars in August of 2012. Earlier this month, Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager captured a special selfie: one comprised of several smaller component images.
The images were captured just before the rover began drilling into a rock called “The Buskin,” located on the lower part of Mount Sharp. The rover successfully collected its seventh drilled sample as part of the ongoing mission to investigate Mars’ geological makeup.
Curiosity posed for the series of selfies on August 5, three years after landing on the planet’s surface. The data already sent back by the rover confirms that the planet has the potential to support life, once had water, and that the high radiation levels could be dangerous to humans.
Curiosity is headed further up Mount Sharp to gather more rock and mineral samples.
The Mars Hand Lens Imager is attached to the end of Curiosity’s arm, and was positioned lower than before to capture these incredible selfies. The team was able to point the camera at such an angle that the arm was out of shots in the frames used for the mosaic image, confirming that it does indeed take a team of scientists to take the perfect selfie.
