Mars Rover Curiosity Just Hit 5,000 Days on the Red Planet

Keypoints

• NASA's Curiosity rover reached its 5,000th Martian day on August 30, 2026
• NASA shared a "postcard" view that blends morning and afternoon photos
• Colors were added as an artistic touch, blue for morning and yellow for afternoon
• The photos were taken at a sandy ridge nicknamed Chocolatal
• Curiosity is exploring the lower slopes of Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater

A day on Mars is called a sol, and it is a little longer than a day on Earth. Curiosity just passed Sol 5,000, which means it has been working on Mars for about 14 years. To mark the moment, the rover took pictures of its surroundings at two different times of day. One set was shot on August 30 at 9:56 a.m. local Mars time. The other was taken on September 2 in the late afternoon. NASA then blended them into one scene.

The rover's navigation cameras only shoot in black and white. So the colors you see are an artistic choice, with blue for the morning light and yellow for the afternoon. The picture shows Curiosity's antenna, the rover's nuclear power source at the back and the tracks it left behind. Beyond them, the view stretches across Gale Crater. The crater rim is only faintly visible far away on the horizon.

Curiosity landed on Mars in August 2012 and is now climbing the foothills of Mount Sharp. The mountain rises about 3 miles, or 5 kilometers, from the crater floor. For a rover built long ago, it is still working hard and sending home stunning views.