Subject: Curiosity rover captures highest-resolution panorama photo of Mars ever taken Sat Mar 07, 2020 8:41 pm
NASA's Curiosity rover had an active Thanksgiving holiday in 2019, snapping over 1,000 images of Mars to send back to Earth. This week, NASA revealed the glorious 1.8-billion-pixel 360-degree picture that came from that photoshoot — the highest-resolution panorama photo of the red planet ever taken.
Scientists have spent the last few months assembling the nearly 1,200 images to create one cohesive picture, NASA said in a press release. They were taken with the rover's Mast Camera, or Mastcam, using its telephoto lens between November 24 and December 1, when the entire mission team on Earth was off for Thanksgiving.
While the rest of the team relaxed, Curiosity had little to do — and it took the rare opportunity to flex its photography skills. Scientists programmed the Mastcam to take photos each day during the same two-hour window in order to keep the lighting consistent.