Curiosity climbs to new heights on Mars | Space photo of the day for Aug. 28, 2026

A photograph taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from the floor of Gale Crater, on Aug. 1 and Aug. 2, 2026, the 4,972nd and 4,973rd Martian days, or sols, of the rover's mission. The photo captures a valley on the side of Mount Sharp, the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer) mountain the rover has been climbing since 2014. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)One of NASA's intrepid Mars rovers has notched another impressive milestone during its exploration of the Red Planet.What is it?NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its Mastcam camera to capture a panorama made up of 323 individual images. The images were taken on Aug. 1 and Aug. 2, 2026, the 4,972nd and 4,973rd Martian days (or sols) of the rover's mission, just as Curiosity notched a total of 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) of elevation gain throughout its now 14-year exploration of the Red Planet.The images show the wide expanse of a broad valley nicknamed "Valle Grande," a depression on the side of Mars' Mount Sharp, the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer) mountain the rover has been climbing since 2014. The valley's floor and northern rim can be seen in the distance.Why is it incredible?A panorama of Mars' Mount Sharp, captured by NASA's Curiosity rover from the floor of Gale Crater, on Aug. 1 and Aug. 2, 2026, the 4,972nd and 4,973rd Martian days, or sols, of the rover's mission. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)Curiosity's mission has been incredible for a number of reasons. For one, the daring "sky crane" maneuver that NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory used to land the SUV-sized robot on the Red Planet changed Mars landings forever.Since then, Curiosity has discovered clues that liquid water once flowed across the surface of Mars and has found tantalizing evidence of complex organic molecules on the Red Planet, including some that scientists consider to be the "building blocks" of life.And even after 14 years of traveling across the Red Planet and suffering considerable damage to its wheels, NASA says Curiosity has plenty of exploration and science left to conduct.Another one of NASA's Mars rovers, Perseverance, recently notched a travel milestone of its own when it surpassed 26.2 miles (42.2 km) of travel  — the length of a marathon  — across the Martian surface.