NASA’s Curiosity rover takes hi-def selfie on Mars

TORONTO – It’s a pretty amazing selfie. You might even say it’s out of this world.

Okay, while that was a bit cliche, it’s actually true: NASA’s Curiosity rover took an amazing selfie on Mars that, when seen in its highest definition (it’s huge so it may take a bit to open), is breathtaking.

READ MORE: NASA invites you to send your name to Mars

We get to see a part of Mars in astonishing detail, from the drill holes Curiosity made in the ground to cracks in the Martian surface. Small rocks are littered across the ground. Mountains rise up in the distance. It’s easy to imagine walking along the surface and picking up a rock or two.

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This low-angle selfie is a mosaic of 92 images taken by Curosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager on Aug. 5, the rover’s 1,065 sol or Martian day.

Curiosity took the image above the Buckskin rock target, an area where the rover drilled holes to analyze Martian rock samples. It’s facing northeast and looking out over a six-metre hill it climbed.

READ MORE: Buzz Aldrin on why Mars is our future and why we should leave people there

Mount Sharp is seen to the left of the rover with Gale Crater’s northern rim on the left and right of the horizon.

So how did it manage to take it without its arm sticking out (no selfie stick needed)?

It’s because the completed image is a mosaic. You can actually see the shadow of the arm on the ground. But the way the arm is able to move allows it to be out of the frames once the images are all put together.

You can find the individual images here.

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