---
title: "NASA Mars Rover Snaps Glorious 1.8 Billion Pixel Panorama"
description: "NASA's Curiosity rover snapped more than 1,000 images, which teams back on Earth composed into a 360 degree Martian landscape panorama."
date: "2020-03-05"
modified: "2020-03-05"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-mars-rover-snaps-glorious-panorama"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "Mars"
  - "Science & Energy"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "curiosity"
  - "mars"
  - "NASA"
  - "the digest"
---

# NASA Mars Rover Snaps Glorious 1.8 Billion Pixel Panorama

![NASA's Curiosity rover snapped more than 1,000 images, which teams back on Earth composed into a 360 degree Martian landscape panorama.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/nasa-mars-rover-snaps-glorious-1-8-billion-pixel-panorma.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: NASA/JPL\</em\>*

## Enhance!

NASA's Curiosity rover snapped more than 1,000 images on Thanksgiving day 2019, which teams back on Earth composed into a glorious 360 degree panorama of the Martian landscape.

"While many on our team were at home enjoying turkey, Curiosity produced this feast for the eyes," Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in [a statement](<https://phys.org/news/2020-03-curiosity-mars-rover-snaps-highest-resolution.html>). "This is the first time during the mission we've dedicated our operations to a stereo 360-degree panorama."

https://youtu.be/X2UaFuJsqxk

## Feast for the Eyes

The 1.8 billion pixel composite shows a region on the side of Mount Sharp, called "Glen Torridon," which that offers gorgeous vistas of low-lying clay and larger ridges in the distance.

It also shows a massive 3-mile wide impact crater called the "Slangpos crater" that was likely caused by a dramatic event involving a massive object in the planet's past.

It took more than 6.5 hours to snap all the photos, a task completed by programming Curiosity's Mastcam, the rover's towering 'head' that pokes out above its body. Each image was taken between noon and 2pm Mars time to ensure the images were in focus and fully lit — an effort which, in our opinion, paid off perfectly.

**READ MORE:** [Curiosity Mars rover snaps its highest-resolution panorama yet](<https://phys.org/news/2020-03-curiosity-mars-rover-snaps-highest-resolution.html>) \[Jet Propulsion Laboratory\]

**More on Curiosity:** *[Glitch Puts NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Out of Commission](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-curiosity-mars-rover-glitch>)*

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)