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Curiosity Rover
@MarsCuriosity
Your friendly neighborhood NASA Mars rover. Exploring the Red Planet since 2012. Team headquartered at
@NASAJPL
🚀 (Verification: nasa.gov/socialmedia)
Gale Crater, Marsmars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/Joined July 2008
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4.2M Followers

Curiosity Rover’s posts

Curiosity Rover
@MarsCuriosity
It seems to me you lived your life like a rover in the wind never fading with the sunset when the dust set in. Your tracks will always fall here, among Mars' reddest hills; your candle's burned out long before your science ever will. #ThanksOppy. I owe you so much.
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Curiosity Rover
@MarsCuriosity
The Martian surface can be rocky, sharp, and unforgiving – so after nearly 10 years, my wheels have taken a beating. The good news is that this is not impacting my mission.
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Curiosity Rover
@MarsCuriosity
I'm celebrating my 9th landiversary on Mars. In 2012, I hit the ground running. I've traveled a total of 16.3 mi (26.3 km), climbed 1,509 ft (460 m) in elevation & collected 32 drilled samples. Time flies when you’re doing science. Thanks for riding along! go.nasa.gov/3xs89RE
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Curiosity Rover
@MarsCuriosity
Meanwhile, back on Mars... I’m checking out these stick-like figures. Each is about a quarter-inch long. Maybe they're crystals? Or they could be minerals that filled spaces where crystals dissolved away. Stay tuned! Science continues.
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Curiosity Rover
@MarsCuriosity
Look cute – and I won’t delete later. Greetings from the Red Planet! I took another selfie as I explored a new spot dubbed “Mary Anning,” where I'm analyzing drill samples. I conducted experiments on them in my continued search for organic molecules. go.nasa.gov/3eUR9f9
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Curiosity Rover
@MarsCuriosity
Some of you have noticed this image I took on Mars. Sure, it may look like a tiny door, but really, it’s a natural geologic feature! It may just *look* like a door because your mind is trying to make sense of the unknown. (This is called "pareidolia") go.nasa.gov/3sGhC8l
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Curiosity Rover
@MarsCuriosity
Mars may be named for the god of war, but these weird things aren't cannonballs. They're pebbles. The round 5mm concretion I found (L) contains calcium sulfate, sodium + magnesium, making it different from the hematite-rich "blueberries" (R)
@MarsRovers
Opportunity found. Cool!
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Curiosity Rover
@MarsCuriosity
Feeling the love! Thanks, everyone, for all the thoughtful landing anniversary messages. I remember where I was seven years ago tonight. Do you remember where you were when I touched down on Mars?
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Curiosity Rover
@MarsCuriosity
Mars is a rocky place, and my wheels take the brunt of it. But that doesn't stop me from exploring! My team says my wheels are holding up. Plus: A software update I got in April helps minimize steering, which improves my mobility and reduces the wear that comes from steering.
A color image taken by the Curiosity rover's MAHLI instrument shows tears and holes in one of its wheels on the surface of Mars. The dusty, black wheel takes up the majority of the image, with tears to the center and left sides of it. The treads create slight V-shapes along the tires. To the right is a black tube and dust-covered mechanical components of the rover.
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Curiosity Rover
@MarsCuriosity
Today, I'm celebrating my 11th landiversary! 🥳 In this last year, I’ve surpassed 30km, spotted another meteorite, entered a new quadrant, and encountered my toughest climb yet. I've got more science-ing to do - so here's to more exploring on the Red Planet!
Two panoramas taken in the morning and afternoon on Mars are combined to create a color-enhanced landscape image. Both panoramas of the area, known as "Marker Band Valley," were taken by the Curiosity Mars rover's navigation cameras. The detailed photo shows yellow coloring in the sky to mark the afternoon hours and it transitions to a blue color to indicate the morning color. The taupe-colored landscape shows a large, rocky hill to the right and smaller rocky hills in the distance toward the center and out into the horizon. To the left is a rocky outcrop and as we get closer to the foreground the area shows rover tracks along the sandy floor. To the bottom-right corner, the backend of the off-white, dusty rover is shown. Part of the rover's wheel can be seen as well as three of its antennas. The Radiation Assessment Detector, or RAD instrument, appears as a white circle in the lower right portion on the back of the rover.
A black-and-white square image shows the wheels of the Curiosity rover as it navigates a tricky trail on Mars. The wheels of the rover take up a big portion of the image toward the right and part of the wheel connections are shown with wires and zip-ties. To the right, the Martian surface is very sandy with ripples and large rocks. One of Curiosity's wheels is against a big rock and behind the rover are tracks deep in the sand, showing the slippery terrain it had to deal with.
This composite image shows Curiosity's view of its Martian workspace. A large rock is centered between shadows the rover cast onto the surface. Curiosity's "head" is to the right of the rock, and its arm is to the left. The rock itself is roughly a foot in diameter and mostly round, with divots across its rough surface. It is gray/silver. Mars dirt has settled on portions of it. In the rest of the image, the light red Martian surface is sprinkled with smaller rocks and pebbles.
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Curiosity Rover
@MarsCuriosity
I just reached a milestone only surpassed by Opportunity: 30 km on Mars ✅ I've explored so much in my 10-plus-year trek through Gale Crater, but there are many more rocks to sample and analyze! Retrace my tracks with this interactive map: go.nasa.gov/3EtmSCi
A screenshot of Curiosity's interactive map shows an aerial view of the surface of Mars. Black toolbars line the top and left of the image, and the title reads "Curiosity's Location, Sol 3843 | Distance Driven 18.64 miles / 30 km." The areas of Mars that the rover has explored are shown in dusty red, while the areas outside of that are black-and-white. A white line illustrates the path of the Curiosity rover - starting from the top-right and moving toward the center-left before crossing back to the right and zigzagging toward the bottom. At the end of the line, a blue upside-down tear-drop icon represents where the Curiosity rover is currently positioned on Mars. A scale at the bottom shows the approximate distance illustrated by the map.
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Curiosity Rover
@MarsCuriosity
Got any plans for the holiday weekend? I'm going for a drive and will check out some layered bedrock with my laser, then I'll take a timeout to inspect my wheels and just observe this gorgeous crater. Wherever the #4thofJuly takes you, I hope it's an adventure.
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Curiosity Rover
@MarsCuriosity
☁️ Just clouds drifting through the Martian sky. These wisps were ~50 miles (80 km) above me & the height suggests they’re made of carbon dioxide ice. These digitally-enhanced images from one of my navigation cameras were put together into 8-frame GIFs. go.nasa.gov/3rTftG8
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Curiosity Rover
@MarsCuriosity
One of your favorite Martians is turning 11 soon! My landiversary is on August 5. If you could send a gift all the way out here on Mars, what would you send me? Photos encouraged!
A color image shows the head of the Curiosity rover on Mars at an angle tilted toward the left. In the background is the rocky and sandy Martian surface, with copper hues and grayish shadows where the rocks are bigger. Then the background becomes hazy along the tilted horizon with murky outlines of mountains and hilltops. In the center of the image is the rectangular-shaped rover's head. It has one big circle that looks like the eye of Curiosity and below it are two square-shaped outlets. A wheel-shaped gear is on the right side right under the rover's head. It's mechanical neck is slightly angled as if the rover is looking off into the horizon in front of it. The entire image has a haze to it almost like it's an album cover.
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Curiosity Rover
@MarsCuriosity
I’m making Mars safer for future astronauts. Unlike Earth, the Red Planet doesn’t have a magnetic field to shield it from radiation that can wreak havoc on human health. My RAD sensor is providing new data on the risks astronauts will face on the surface. go.nasa.gov/3Cd2bGE
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Curiosity Rover
@MarsCuriosity
Rock. Rock. Rock. Rock. Rock. Rock. METEORITE! It's not uncommon to find meteorites on Mars - in fact, I've done it a few times! (see 🧵) But a change in scenery's always nice. This one's about a foot wide and made of iron-nickel. We're calling it "Cacao."
This composite image shows Curiosity's view of its Martian workspace. A large rock is centered between shadows the rover cast onto the surface. Curiosity's "head" is to the right of the rock, and its arm is to the left. The rock itself is roughly a foot in diameter and mostly round, with divots across its rough surface. It is gray/silver. Mars dirt has settled on portions of it. In the rest of the image, the light red Martian surface is sprinkled with smaller rocks and pebbles.
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Curiosity Rover
@MarsCuriosity
A celebration for little ‘ol me? 😊 I’ve done a lot of exploring these last 10 years on Mars, and members of my team have helped me every step of the way. So join us for a Twitter Spaces event as they reflect on this decade of discoveries.
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Curiosity Rover
@MarsCuriosity
Well, this is a first... 😍 As I watched the sunset last month, I captured something spectacular: My team says these are some of the most clearly visible images of sun rays we've ever seen on Mars!
A panoramic image captured by the Curiosity Mars rover. The dark horizon appears as a jagged sliver along the bottom of the image with the gray Martian sky above. Taken at twilight, the image displays faint white, green, and pink-hued “sun rays” shining through clouds at sunset. The varying light and dark beams radiate from the center of the image upward and outward from the horizon. This panorama was stitched together from 28 images sent to Earth.
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