NASA’s Curiosity Rover Catches Stunning Martian Dawn | Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The captivating shapes of wind-carved crags called yardangs are revealed in this zoomed-in crop of a broader panorama captured by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover on Aug. 11, 2026. Scientists are eager to learn more about how the yardang layer formed.
Image Description: A stark, grayish-tan Martian landscape features jagged rock formations and rolling mountain ridges beneath a pale, hazy sky.
A broad, panoramic view of a stark, grayish-tan Martian landscape features jagged rock formations and rolling mountain ridges beneath a hazy sky. Features in the front are darker while distant rock formations are washed in pale light.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this view looking back at the floor of Gale Crater on Sept. 5, 2026. Just nine days prior, the rover had marked 1 kilometer of elevation gain above the crater floor since beginning its ascent of Mount Sharp in 2014.
Image Description: A wide panoramic view of a rocky, reddish-brown Martian valley framed by rugged hills under a hazy sky, with a portion of NASA’s Curiosity Mars visible on the far right.
This artist’s concept shows Mount Sharp, the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain that NASA’s Curiosity has been ascending since 2014. The location of the yardang layer, which the rover recently captured from a distance, is indicated by an ellipse annotation on the mountain’s northwestern shoulder.
Image Description: A 3D topographical map shows a large Martian crater with a prominent central mountain peak, encircled by a black oval highlighting a specific region near the base of the mound.
A newly released panorama captured by NASA’s Curiosity rover offers the most detailed view yet of distant, wind-carved Martian cliffs, highlighting features the mission’s scientists have long been waiting to see up close. The scene was snapped at 8:30 a.m. local Mars time, showing striking blue hues in the foreground as bright morning light illuminates crags known as yardangs on the horizon.
This panorama was captured by Curiosity’s Mastcam on Aug. 11, 2026, the 4,982nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission, and comprises six individual images that were stitched together after being sent to Earth. Unlike most of Curiosity’s Mastcam images, this one was processed without white balancing, preserving the early morning appearance.
The yardang layer extends roughly 10 miles (16 kilometers) across the northwestern reaches of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain that Curiosity has been ascending since 2014. In fact, the rover recently passed another milestone in its ascent, reaching 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) of elevation—the most ever climbed on Mars. As it draws ever-closer to the yardangs, mission scientists expect to get even more amazing imagery—and, they hope, answers to how these cliffs were created.
Mount Sharp is made up of layers, each recording a distinct period of Mars’ history. By studying them, scientists have been able to learn more about lakes and streams that covered this part of the Red Planet billions of years ago. Eventually, the water dried up and left salty minerals behind. After new material stopped settling on the mountain, part of it may have been stripped away by wind, giving rise to the yardangs.
“The yardang layer looks out of place. It’s the wrong color, the layers tilt at an odd angle, and it almost appears plastered on,” said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity project scientist of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “But that’s what makes it exciting to reach. No one is sure exactly what created this layer, but one idea is it may be ash deposited by ancient volcanic eruptions.”
Curiosity is in the second year of its fifth extended mission. It started with an exploration of the spiderweb-like boxwork ridges. The rover will spend most of the next year or so driving through layers enriched with sulfates and carbonates, both signs of ancient drying on the surface. During 2027, scientists hope to reach the base of the yardangs, where Curiosity will be able to use its robotic arm to collect one-of-a-kind data on these mysterious features.
Curiosity was built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California. NASA JPL leads the mission on behalf of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington as part of its Mars Exploration Program portfolio. Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego built and operates Mastcam.
Celebrating 14+ Years on Mars (2012-2026)
Mission Name: Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
Rover Name: Curiosity
Main Job: To determine if Mars was ever habitable to microbial life.
Launch: Nov. 6, 2011
Landing Date: Aug. 5, 2012, Gale Crater, Mars
For more information on NASA's Mars missions, visit: mars.nasa.gov
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
Image Dates: Aug. 11 & Sept. 5, 2026
Release Date: Oct. 6, 2026
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