Curiosity Rover Views The Yardang Unit On Mars
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this view of a geological region called the Yardang Unit using its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, on Nov. 2, 2024, the 4,352nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Larger image
This mosaic is made up of 18 images that were stitched together after being sent back to Earth. The color has been adjusted to match lighting conditions as the human eye would see them on Earth.
A yardang is an elongated ridge created by wind erosion. The Yardang Unit is a layer found at the uppermost reaches of the foothills at the base of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain that Curiosity has been ascending since 2014.
The color, texture, and tilt of the layers in the Yardang Unit make it distinct from lower layers on the mountain. Mount Sharp is an exciting place for scientists to study because it’s made up of a number of layers, each representing a distinct era in the climate of ancient Mars.
Astrobiology
