NASA’s Curiosity Rover has celebrated the 10th anniversary its Mars launch by returning a stunning ‘picture postcard.

The robotic explorer snapped two black and white images of the Martian landscape which were then combined and had colour added to them to produce the remarkable composite.

Curiosity took the photos after it launched on November 26, 2011 almost exactly 10years ago. From its latest perch at the Mount Sharp on Mars.

It captures a 360-degree view of its surroundings with its black-and-white navigation cameras each time it completes a drive, before beaming back the panorama to Earth.

The beauty of the landscape inspired the team so much that they combined black-and white images taken at different times and added colour to make a unique postcard. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), said. 

Wish you were here! NASA's Curiosity rover has marked the 10th anniversary of its launch to Mars by sending back a spectacular 'picture postcard' from the Red Planet (pictured)

We wish you could be there! NASA’s Curiosity Rover has celebrated the 10th anniversary its Mars launch by returning a stunning ‘picture postcard” from Mars (pictured).

The robotic explorer snapped two black and white images of the Martian landscape which were then combined and had colour added to them to produce the remarkable composite

Two black-and-white images were taken by the robotic explorer of Martian terrain. These two photos were combined with colour to create the amazing composite

Curiosity captures a 360-degree view of its surroundings with its black-and-white navigation cameras each time it completes a drive, before beaming back the panorama to Earth

Curiosity takes a 360 degree view of the surroundings using its black-and white navigation cameras, and beams back that panorama to Earth after it finishes a drive.

HOW CURIOSITY ROVER IMPROVED OUR UNDERSTANDING THE RED PLANET 

On November 26, 2011, the Mars Curiosity rover, originally launched from Cape Canaveral (an American Air Force station located in Florida), was launched. 

After embarking on a 350 million mile (560 million km) journey, the £1.8 billion ($2.5 billion) research vehicle touched down only 1.5 miles (2.4 km) away from the earmarked landing spot.

The rover made a successful landing in August 2012 and has now traveled approximately 11 miles (18 kilometers) 

It launched on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft and the rover constituted 23 per cent of the mass of the total mission. 

With 80 kg (180 lb) of scientific instruments on board, the rover weighs a total of 899 kg (1,982 lb) and is powered by a plutonium fuel source. 

It measures 2.9m (9.5ft), is 2.7m (8.9ft) long, and 2.2m (7.2ft in height).

In the beginning, the mission of the Mars Rover was to last two years. The goal of the mission was to collect information that could help determine whether Mars can support life and if Mars has water.  

The mission’s success led to an indefinite extension of the mission and it has now been operational for more than 3,000 days.

The team stated in a statement that many of the most spectacular panoramas from Mars are made using the color Mastcam instrument. This has a much higher resolution than navigation cameras. 

“That’s why we added our own colors to the new image. 

“The tints of blue, orange and green aren’t what the eyes would see. They represent different views at different times. 

Curiosity snapped the images twice on November 16. The first was at 8:30 local Mars time, and the second at 16;10. 

JPL stated that this provided contrast lighting conditions, which brought out different landscape details.

After combining the scenes, the team created an artistic recreation that combined elements from both the morning scene and the afternoon scene. 

At the centre of the image is the view back down Mount Sharp, or Aeolis Mons, a mountain that forms the central peak of Gale Crater. 

Since 2014, Curiosity drives up the mountain’s three-mile (5km) height. 

At the centre of the picture, you can see rounded hills and a field of ripples of sand known as the “Sands of Forvie”. It is approximately a quarter mile (400 to 800m).

To the right is the craggy Rafael Navarro Mountain. This mountain was named in honor of a Curiosity scientist who passed away earlier this year.

It is visible from behind, the top of Mount Sharp. This is far more than the area Curiosity explores.

Mount Sharp is located in Gale Crater. It’s a 96-mile (154km) large basin that was formed from an impact.

Gale Crater’s distant rim is 7500ft in height (2.3 km), and it can be seen from the horizon at approximately 18 to 25 miles (30 to 40km).

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is responsible for Curiosity, and is managed by Caltech, Pasadena.

It is not the newest rover on Mars — that honour belongs to Perseverance, which arrived with NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter in February this year and is Looking for ancient microbial lives on the Red Planet.

Last week Perseverance collected its third Martian sample, this time from a rock ‘loaded with the greenish mineral olivine’.

Each of the 43 titanium tubes carried by the Rover are loaded into one tube. 

Perseverance’s scouting revealed that billions of years ago the Jezero meteorite had a river and lake delta. This made it a great place to find signs of “life”

NASA has plans to send 30 samples to Earth by 2030. Scientists will then be able conduct further analysis to confirm the existence of microbial life.

However, Perseverance itself is not bringing the samples back to Earth — when the rover reaches a suitable location, the tubes will dropped on the surface of Mars to be collected by a future retrieval mission, which is currently being developed. 

Curiosity (pictured), which launched to Mars almost exactly 10 years ago on November 26, 2011, took the pictures from its most recent perch on the side of the Red Planet's Mount Sharp

Curiosity (pictured), which was launched almost exactly 10 year ago to Mars on November 26, 2011, captured the images from its latest perch at the Mount Sharp on Mars. 

Perseverance will collect samples from Mars once it has collected them. It will then drop the materials at an appropriate location to allow future missions to retrieve them. 

NASA and ESA are planning to launch another spacecraft which will leave Earth in 2026, and return to Mars in 2028.

The first will deploy a small rover, which will make its way to Perseverance, pick up the filled sampling tubes and transfer them to a ‘Mars ascent vehicle’ — a small rocket.

This rocket will blast off – in the process becoming the first object launched from the surface of Mars – and place the container into Martian orbit, meaning it will essentially be floating in space.

The third spacecraft, which is the final one involved in this tricky operation, will maneuver itself near the sample container and pick it up before flying it back to Earth.

If it is successful in re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere, the Martian sample will be lost to space for 10 more years.

What Evidence Does Science Have About Life on Mars?

Humanity has long been obsessed with the quest for life on other worlds.

However, science has shown that reality may be less Hollywood-style blockbusters than it appears.

According to them, if there is life on the red earth, then it will likely present itself in the form of fossilized bacteria.

The most encouraging signs of life are listed below.

Water 

Experts agree water is the key to life on Mars.

Although our planet is currently barren, rocky and covered in polar glaciers, there was once water.

The first evidence that Mars had water was found by scientists in 2000.

According to the Nasa Mars Global Surveyor, there were gullies which could have been caused by water flowing.

There is still debate about whether the recurring slope lines (RSLs) were formed by water flow.

Meteorites 

According to Space.com, Earth was hit by 34 Mars meteorites. Three of these are thought to be evidence of Earth’s past life, Space.com reports.

1995, scientists discovered an Antarctic meteorite named ALH84001. This meteorite contained fossilised bacteria-like forms.

In 2012 however, scientists concluded that this organic material was created by volcanic activity and not life.

The Signs of Life 

1964 Mariner 4 took the first close-ups.

These first images indicated that Mars may have landforms formed in a climate warmer than today.

In 1975, the Viking orbiter launched. It was inconclusive but it helped pave the way for future landers.

Numerous rovers, orbiters, and landers now show evidence that water is beneath the crust.

In an old Martian lakebed, Nasa’s Curiosity Rover discovered potential life-building blocks earlier this year.

The organic molecules preserved in 3.5 billion-year-old bedrock in Gale Crater — believed to have once contained a shallow lake the size of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee — suggest conditions back then may have been conducive to life.

The future missions to Mars will bring samples back from Mars to further test their quality.

Methane 

Curiosity confirmed that methane was increasing in Martian atmosphere during 2018 as well.

Experts say methane observation is ‘one the most convincing’ case in current-day life.

Curiosity took methane measurements over four and a half Earth-years, which covered parts of three Martian-years.

Late summer and winter were the best times to detect seasonal peak in the northern hemisphere. 

The magnitude of these seasonal peaks – by a factor of three – was far more than scientists expected.