Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Dubai, UAE – Oct. 2026 – NASA has released a striking image of dawn on Mars, taken by the curiosity rover as it continues its exploration of the Red Planet’s surface.
The image shows sunlight illuminating towering rock formations that took shape billions of years ago. It was captured about an hour after sunrise over an area of rocky ridges carved by wind and weathering over long ages.
Ashwin Vasavada, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said the rock formations visible on the horizon belong to a geological layer different from those the rover has explored so far.
He suggested they were formed from wind-blown sediment that was later sculpted by erosion into rows of ridges known as yardangs.
Scientists estimate the layer formed roughly three billion years ago. It stretches for about 16 kilometers along the northwestern edge of Mount Sharp, which sits at the center of Gale Crater on Mars.
