In early March, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover began approaching a stunning rock formation that scientists have dubbed "Mont Mercou," a nickname taken from a mountain in . Standing around 6 meters tall, the outcrop is captured in all its majesty in a new selfie, as well as a pair of panoramas that offer a 3D view. The selfie shows Curiosity in front of Mount Mercou with a new hole next to a rock sample dubbed "Nontron" - the mission's 30th sample to date.
Curiosity's drill pulverized the sample before placing it in instruments inside the rover so the science team could gain a better understanding of the rock's composition and what clues it might offer about Mars' past. This area is in the transition between the “clay carrying unit”.
Curiosity is departing and the “sulfate-carrying unit” that it's ahead on Mount Sharp, the three-mile-high mountain the rover has been accumulating since 5. Scientists have long thought this transition might reveal what happened to Mars when it became the desert planet we see today.
's Mont Mercou is located near the village of Nontron in the south-east of the country. The team chose Nontron-related nicknames for this part of the Red Planet because Mars orbiters have detected nontronite, a type of clay mineral found near Nontron in the region. Surface missions assign nicknames to landmarks to provide mission team with a common way to refer to rocks, soils, and other geological features of interest.
The selfie is made up of 60 images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the rover's robotic arm on March 26, 2021, the 3.070th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. They were combined with 11 images taken by Mastcam at the rover's mast, or "head," on March 16, 2021, the mission's 3.060th Martian day.
Source: NASA
