Curiosity rover sends a selfie home from Mars

Curiosity Mars rover selfie.
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/ NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

You might want to think outside the box the next time you take a selfie, because NASA's Curiosity rover is changing the game.

All the way from Mars, the data-collecting vessel snapped a panoramic shot of itself — as well as the surrounding landscape of the red planet — back on Aug. 9. And like any good kid at sleepaway camp, it sent the photo straight home, so now we can all take in the beauty of what might just be the home of our nearest intergalactic neighbors.

The photo gets us a close look at the Vera Rubin Ridge, the area Curiosity has been exploring for the last year or so, Space reported. Also in view are the edge of the Gale Crater, as well as the last signs of the still-clearing dust storm that rendered NASA's other Mars rover, Opportunity, unresponsive earlier this summer.

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Learn more about this special selfie at Space, or take a look for yourself below. Shivani Ishwar

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Shivani is the editorial assistant at TheWeek.com and has previously written for StreetEasy and Mic.com. A graduate of the physics and journalism departments at NYU, Shivani currently lives in Brooklyn and spends free time cooking, watching TV, and taking too many selfies.