Humanity had been wondering for centuries if ‘Martians’ exist, the hypothetical inhabitants of our neighboring planet Mars. Unfortunately or not, it’s almost certain that there is no alien life dwelling on the Red Planet, but recent researches are suggesting that it could have existed in the past. This hunch lies in the fact that Mars once had lakes and streams, not to mention that the planet exists in the habitable zone of the solar system.
But it’s obvious that there is needed a lot more investigation of Mars in order to determine for sure if the planet ever had life forms on its surface. One step could be a recent panoramic photo taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover during the 2019 Thanksgiving holiday, and published on Thursday.
1.8 billion pixels of the Martian surface
The panoramic photo is the outcome of several months of hard-working. Astronomers had to put together 1,000 images, and the result was 1.8 billion pixels of the Martian surface. They were assembled in a beautiful panoramic photo:
Ashwin Vasavada, leader of the Curiosity rover mission, said the following:
While many on our team were at home enjoying turkey, Curiosity produced this feast for the eyes,
He further let the world know that it’s the first time they made a stereo panoramic view:
This is the first time during the mission we’ve dedicated our operations to a stereo 360-degree panorama.
While operations like this have the goal to understand better what Mars is made of and how it could have been in the past, it can also be considered part of a much bigger plan of realizing if humans can ever live on this planet.
With Earth facing a lot of threats like global warming, diseases, earthquakes, volcanoes, wars, corruption, or poverty, colonizing another planet in the far future seems like a good option.
