NASA’s Curiosity rover sends back stunning selfie from the surface of Mars

NASA’s Curiosity rover has published a brand new selfie from the surface of Mars.

The incredible snapshot was taken earlier this month at the Rock Hall drill site of Vera Rubin ridge, where the martian rover has been situated for almost a year.

Showing the Red Planet’s arid terrain, the scene is dustier than usual due to a storm in the area.

Curiosity has now left the site in order to investigate the Red Planet’s clay region of Mount Sharp. 

The latest picture is the first to be published since the US government re-opened following a month-long shut down.

Curiosity’s selfie is composed of 57 individual snapshots taken by the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a camera on the end of the rover’s robotic arm. 

The images were then stitched together into a single panorama.     

It is not the first selfie to be sent back from Mars by Curiosity as the robot has successfully sent one back every year since arriving on Mars in 2012. 

The first was taken on October 31 2012 after 84 days on the surface and was composed of 55 separate images taken by the same camera.  

Such pictures allow Nasa’s engineers and scientists to check on the health of the rover and see whether it is being effected by the thick red dust on the Martian surface.

2015: This previous selfie of Nasa’s Curiosity rover above was stitched together from dozens of images to crop out the robotic arm used to take the image

It also allows them to see the surrounding landscape to check for any nearby hazards that may pose a threat to the rover. 

When Curiosity first landed on Mars it used its Side-A computer. 

But, five years ago, it experienced hardware and software issues, and the team switched it over to Side B.

The affected part of Side A was then quarantined, allowing the rover to continue storing data and event records on it.

The team decided to again make a switch last month after the memory anomaly.

WHAT IS THE MARS CURIOSITY ROVER AND WHAT HAS IT ACHIEVED SO FAR?

The Mars Curiosity rover was initially launched from Cape Canaveral, an American Air Force station in Florida on November 26, 2011. 

After embarking on a 350 million mile (560 million km) journey, the £1.8 billion ($2.5 billion) research vehicle touched down only 1.5 miles (2.4 km) away from the earmarked landing spot.

After a successful landing on August 6th, 2012, the rover has travelled about 11 miles (18 km). 

It was launched on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft and the rover constituted 23 per cent of the mass of the total mission. 

With 80 kg (180 lb) of scientific instruments on board, the rover weighs a total of 899 kg (1,982 lb) and is powered by a plutonium fuel source. 

The rover is 2.9 metres (9.5 ft) long by 2.7 metres (8.9 ft) wide by 2.2 metres (7.2 ft) in height. 

The Mars curiosity rover was initially intended to be a two-year mission to gather information to help answer if the planet could support life, has liquid water, study the climate and the geology of Mars an has since been active for more than 2,000  days

The rover was initially intended to be a two-year mission to gather information to help answer if the planet could support life, has liquid water, study the climate and the geology of Mars.  

Due to its success, the mission has been extended indefinitely and has now been active for over 2,000 days.

The rover has several scientific instruments on board, including the mastcam which consists of two cameras and can take high-resolution images and videos in real colour. 

So far on the journey of the car-sized robot it has encountered an ancient streambed where liquid water used to flow, not long after it also discovered that billions of years ago, a nearby area known as Yellowknife Bay was part of a lake that could have supported microbial life.