Always wondered how the view on Mars looks like? Now, Facebook users can explore the surface of the Red Planet with the fantastic 360 degree view of the alien world. Following a spectacular selfie of NASA's Curiosity rover last week, the official Curiosity rover page on Facebook released this new interactive image of Mars.
NASA now offers this opportunity for users with smartphones to explore Mars within 360 degrees using the hashtag #FromWhereIStand.
This spectacular 360 degree panorama view is located downwards the mysterious sand dunes of Mars known as the Namib Dune, where dunes are found towering at more than 16 feet. This region is within the Bagnold Dunes, filled with dark sandy terrain, which northwest of Mount Sharp.
The main mission of the rover is to investigate the environment of Mars specifically how its once wet terrain evolved into an arid landscape, appearing to be devoid of any life.
Curiosity combined many images from multiple shots into a final composite image that was captured by its onboard Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera which is attached to the rover's arm.
The rover landed on Mars last August 2012 where Curiosity's main task was to gather multiple samples from rock dust or powder including soil specimens and send compositional analyses back to mission control on Earth. Apart from this, the rover also captured images and data that can help scientists better understand the history and evolution of Mars.
Recently, Curiosity analyzed the mysterious grain particles of the Martian sand dunes in order to gain more valuable insight how winds occur on the dusty planet, along with its weather patterns. Prior to this series of images, the rover beamed back high resolution detailed photos of the sand dunes that reveals much about the geology of Mars.
Apart from Curiosity's official Facebook page, this new 360 degree video was also posted on the Youtube channel of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory last Monday.
According to NASA officials, the view is the downwind face of the Namib Dune covering a full 360 degrees and also a portion of the highest point on Mars, Mount Sharp. This location is also part of the Bagnold Dunes which is believed to move for three feet every year. All the images were taken last December 18, 2015 using Curiosity rover's Mast Camera.