This is the surface of another planet

A Curiosity Self-Portrait

I find that amazing. That’s a freakin’ planet some 35 – 40 million miles away from us, and we’re getting near-real-time photos!

From TPM, where Carl Franzen says

But for now, one thing is certain: The $2.5 billion rover is still fully operational and in good shape, as was evidenced in the new, high-resolution, full color self-portrait stitched together from 55 separate images captured by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a tool that’s similar to the one carried around by human geologists here on earth, and which has been used by the rover to snap close-ups of Martian rock to analyze their structure and composition. The new self-portrait is an improved version of a black-and-white self-portrait taken by the rover’s navigational cameras (Navcam) earlier on in the mission.

That’s the full composite image that NASA published on Wednesday.