The new panoramic photograph of Mars combines more than 1,000 images taken with Curiosity's Mast camera (Mastcam). It contains 1.8 billion pixels of Martian landscape and shows Glen Torridon, a region next to Mount Sharp that the Curiosity rover is exploring. The image file has a size of 2.43 gigs.
The images released by NASA were taken between November 24 and December 1, 2019. The rover needed more than 6 hours during those four days to capture the individual shots, since it worked only between 12 and 2 pm, time local, so that the lighting conditions were more or less constant. It is rare that Curiosity has the same point of view and the time needed to do something like that, so it was an unbeatable opportunity taking advantage of the Thanksgiving celebration in the United States.
"While many on our team were at home enjoying the turkey, Curiosity produced this feast for our eyes," said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement. "This is the first time during the mission that we have dedicated our operations to a 360-degree stereo panorama."
