NASA’s Curiosity rover has marked 5,000 Martian days on Mars with a new panoramic “postcard” stitched together from morning and afternoon views.

The rover captured the images while stopped at a sandy ridge nicknamed “Chocolatal,” using its navigation cameras to photograph the surrounding area at two different times of day. Those cameras normally take images in black and white.

The first panorama was recorded on August 30, 2026, at 9:56 a.m. local Mars time, marking Curiosity’s 5,000th Martian day, or sol. A second panorama was taken on September 2, 2026, at 5:39 p.m. local Mars time, during the rover’s 5,003rd sol.

After the images arrived on Earth, the two panoramas were combined into a single scene. Color was then added as an artistic interpretation, with blue used for the morning view and yellow for the afternoon.

NASA said the finished “postcard” follows the style of similar Curiosity images created in the past, including one taken in November 2021.

Several parts of the rover are visible in the foreground, including Curiosity’s cylindrical UHF antenna, which sends data to spacecraft orbiting Mars, and the finned Multi Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator at the rear. The Multi Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator is the rover’s nuclear power source.

Curiosity’s tracks can also be seen extending away across the Martian terrain.

The rover is exploring the lower foothills of Mount Sharp, a mountain rising 5 kilometers inside Gale Crater. From Curiosity’s position, the panorama looks downhill toward the crater floor, and the distant rim of Gale Crater is only faintly visible along the horizon.

Curiosity was built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California. JPL operates the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio.

Read more from Science Daily.