On August 26, 2026, the Curiosity rover reached a total elevation gain of one kilometer from the floor of Gale Crater on Mars, ascending the slope of Mount Sharp, reports the NASA.
To mark this milestone, Curiosity captured a 360-degree panoramic selfie at the southern edge of Vera Rubin Ridge, combining 61 exposures taken by its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) instrument. The images of the robotic arm assembly were removed, and the extended background used comes from the rover’s Mastcam camera.
The selfie notably shows the ChemCam housing atop the rover’s mast, obscuring the distant 5-kilometer peak of Mount Sharp.
This image was featured as NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) on October 3, 2026.