A year on Mars: Curiosity's 6 best pictures

While traversing the Red Planet, the plucky NASA rover has revealed signs of life and a penchant for selfies

Space

Happy anniversary! NASA's Curiosity rover celebrated one full year on Mars yesterday. Since landing safely on the morning of Aug. 6, 2012, the rover has crawled the not-exactly-continental distance of 1.6 kilometers (almost exactly one mile) across the planet's desolate surface.

As part of the $2.5 billion mission, Curiosity searched for the presence of life, explored a portion of the 96-mile-wide Gale Crater, and became the first rover to drill on another planet. In its second year, Curiosity is headed toward Mount Sharp, a three-mile-high formation whose layers scientists believe hold secrets of Mars' geological history.

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Kimberly Alters

Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.