NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) recently captured a dramatic shot of the Curiosity rover climbing Mount Sharp's "Mont Mercou" rock formation, a terrene near the crater's middle.
MRO used its High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment tool (HiRISE), which could detect features as small as a kitchen table to capture the image.
Fox News said MRO is a 15-year-old satellite that has been studying the Martian atmosphere and landscape from orbit.
According to the HiRISE team's image summary, the car-sized Curiosity rover was visible even at an altitude of 167.5 miles above the rover at the time.
Curiosity Climbs Mount Sharp To Search For Mars' Microbial Activity
Curiosity has been climbing the 3-mile-high Mount Sharp, the Gale Crater's central tip, since 2014. Its goal has been to look for evidence of microbial activity on Mars in the past. The rover drove more than 15 miles to date.
"Mt. Sharp is more than 5 kilometers high in total. The rover is about the size of a small car and is currently located near and above an approximately 6 meter-high cliff where it examined the exposed rocks," the center's John Grant wrote on a HiRISE website.
Curiosity started approaching Mont Mercou, which is named after a mountain in France, in early March, according to Business Insider.
The rover verified that the Gale Crater was a lake overflowing with chemical materials perfect for life during its first two years on Mars.
Curiosity had uncovered organic content, unexplained increases in the Martian atmosphere's methane levels, and evidence that thin, saline ponds remained when Mars dried out since then.
NASA Expects Curiosity To Share More About Mars' History
As it investigates Mont Mercou, Curiosity is likely to discover more mysteries about Mars' history.
NASA sent Curiosity to Mars to help scientists figure out how the planet will ever host microbes. Per the space agency's website, the rover manages to make discoveries and explore rocks for historical clues after finding chemical and mineral traces of former habitable conditions on Mars.
In a recent Science Times report, NASA released a study of Perseverance's portable Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) lab hinted at the existence of organic salts on Mars.
More photographs taken by Curiosity demonstrate the view from the top of Mont Mercou, including a panorama.
In a video update uploaded on YouTube, Curiosity's deputy project scientist Abigail Fraeman of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California said that the hills just above Mont Mercou are rich in sulfates. Fraeman added Curiosity rover is "headed" there next.
Check out more news and information on Space on Science Times.
