Curiosity’s 360-degree panorama combines 1,031 images taken from Nov. 9 to Dec. 7, 2025, across a region of low ridges called boxwork. NASA says groundwater once moved through large bedrock fractures; minerals hardened the rock along those cracks, leaving ridges more resistant to erosion. [S1]
The rover’s route gives those formations a geological setting. Since 2014, Curiosity has climbed Mount Sharp, where lower layers are older and higher layers younger. The mountain’s sediments record lakes, followed by later episodes when ponds and streams returned, so the ascent carries the rover through successive chapters of Mars’ environmental history. [S1]
Perseverance’s panorama uses a different vantage: 980 images taken between Dec. 18, 2025, and Jan. 25, 2026, show Lac de Charmes outside Jezero Crater’s rim, including the rim and surrounding ancient rocks. NASA describes Jezero’s history as a crater lake fed by a river, with sediments where traces of microbes could have been preserved. [S1]
Source documents
- NASA’s Perseverance, Curiosity Panoramas Capture Two Sides of Marshttps://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/planets/mars/nasas-perseverance-curiosity-panoramas-capture-two-sides-of-mars/