NASA’s Curiosity Rover captures stunning image of ‘Texoli,’ a giant rock tower on Mars

This image from Mars shows a butte on Mount Sharp nicknamed "Texoli" (Image source: NASA)

NASA’s Curiosity rover has captured one of its largest and clearest images of Mars yet, offering breathtaking details of the planet’s surface. The panorama, taken on November 26, 2024, is made up of 251 individual images and boasts an incredible 393 million pixels, giving Earth-like color tones to help us see the Martian landscape as clearly as possible.

Currently, Curiosity is exploring Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-high mountain located inside Mars’ Gale Crater. This new image highlights two towering rock formations, or buttes, that are drawing scientists’ attention:

• "Texoli": A massive 525-foot-tall butte with visible layers of rock, offering clues about how Mars’ surface has evolved over time.
• "Wilkerson": Standing 262 feet tall, this second butte is equally significant as Curiosity plans to navigate between these two formations in its next mission phase.

For the past year, the rover has been exploring the Gediz Vallis channel — an ancient valley likely shaped by water and debris flows billions of years ago. Now, it is preparing to move further up the mountain while scientists continue studying these fascinating rock layers to unlock Mars' geological secrets.

In the distance, the image also reveals:

• The Yardang Unit: A higher-elevation area that scientists plan to visit in the future.
• Gale Crater’s Northern Rim: Visible through a dusty haze on the horizon, showcasing the crater’s vast scale.

The Curiosity mission is led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, with the camera system (Mastcam) developed by Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego.

This stunning panorama is not just a visual treat but a critical step in understanding how Mars — once potentially habitable — has evolved over time.