Move over Kim Kardashian, there’s a piece of space hardware breaking the internet with its ‘butte’ selfies from Mars. Not just being narcissistic, though, NASA’s Curiosity Rover captured the mountainous landscape it’s now climbing as part of its new mission.
Taken amidst the so-called Murray Buttes on the foothills of a 5.5-km high mountain, the new Red Planet selfie comprises of 60 images and was taken while drilling into rock. The six-wheel rover is still looking fine almost five years since it left Earth.
Curiosity has already completed its initial mission, discovering evidence of ancient rivers and lakes capable of supporting microbial life. It is now embarking on a two-year extension, investigating the Martian soil on higher ground to study how long these bodies of water existed for.
The rover is on its way to the soaring Mount Sharp, formally known as Aeolis Mons.
“Even after four years of exploring near and on the mountain, it still has the potential to completely surprise us," scientist Ashwin Vasavada, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement.
Eaerlier, images of the rover’s time in the Murray Buttes area were pieced together into a 360 video. Curiosity will now continue upwards its mission ascending the mountain where we expect it will indulge in more selfies.
This isn’t the first time the rover has taken an impressive selfie, snapping another one back in January from a sand dune.