On Tuesday, NASA’S Curiosity Rover celebrated the 3,000th day, or sols, on Mars. Curiosity landed on Mars on Aug. 6, 2012, and since the rover has been making new discoveries on its gradual climb up Mount Sharp.
The mountain is a towering 3-miles-tall (5-kilometer-tall) and curiosity has been exploring it since 2014.
A press release from NASA describes the geology of the Mount Sharp panorama: “the curved rock terraces that define the area can form when there are harder and softer layers of rock on a slope. As the softer layers erode, the harder layers form small cliffs, leaving behind the benchlike formations”.
“Our science team is excited to figure out how they formed and what they mean for the ancient environment within Gale,” said Curiosity’s builder and managing scientist, Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
The rover has been cruising across a clay-bearing region called “Glen Torridon,” and is continuing toward the next major layer, called “the sulfate-bearing unit.”