This is what it's like to be the Curiosity rover right now, staring out at the Martian landscape.
Created by Hans Nyberg, the image above is the first color panorama from Curiosity.
Drag your cursor around the image to mimic the same head-turning motion as Curiosity. You will see a 360-degree view of the landing site that includes the highest part of Mount Sharp about 12 miles in the distance. You can even shift the camera down to look at Curiosity's "feet."
The panorama is a compilation of 140 photos taken by the rover's 34-millimeter Mast Camera on Aug. 8 and 18. Nyberg stitched together all of the RAW images. Scientists enhanced the colors "to show the Martian scene as it would appear under the lighting conditions we have on Earth." This brings out the fine details that make this image so realistic.
"What I do to make the interactive version is usually correct the horizon, which often is curved on NASA's stitch," Nyberg explains in an email to Mashable.
"I also try to do a simulated sky based on what the originals have. I try to always keep the original as close to what NASA has made, but I often sharpen the pano' as the originals often are soft. Unfortunately, they in most cases do not include images on the rover so that you can look down. I guess that is because the color images needs a lot of bandwidth and power, which they try to minimize."
The panorama embedded in this article is a scaled-down version of the original. Nyberg's full-size panorama is available in a resolution that's five times larger. And take it from us, you have to see the breathtaking view in full-screen mode.
Nyberg has been publishing panoramas from Mars rovers since 2004. While the process of combining so many images seems tedious, Nyberg is actually pretty quick on the draw. In fact, he published his first panorama from Spirit just two hours after NASA released the photos.
NASA published Nyberg's panorama from the Opportunity Rover in July. It recently passed 3 million pageviews.
BONUS: See Curiosity's First Steps on Mars
The rover takes it first cruise on the Martial surface.
Here you can see the landing site, now called Bradbury Landing.
Looking to the left.
According to NASA, "Scour marks left by the rover's descent stage during landing can be seen to the left and right of the wheel tracks."
At the beginning of Curiosity's tracks, notice the 3.5-inch rock NASA engineers said was partially underneath one of the rear wheels.
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