On the rocks

CURIOSITY MARS ROVER, 6 JULY 2020

Curiosity captured this image with its Mastcam on a summer road trip that involved driving up its steepest incline yet. The rover has been scaling the 5km-high Mount Sharp, on the floor of Gale Crater, since 2014 and took this photo of the Greenheugh Pediment on its 2,729th Martian day, or sol. Now in a sulfate-bearing area, Curiosity is examining the mountain’s sedimentary layers for clues about Mars’s former climate and prospects for life.