NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Views of Martian Yardang Unit

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Views of Martian Yardang Unit

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this view of a geological region called the Yardang Unit using its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, on Nov. 2, 2024, the 4,352nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. This mosaic is made up of 18 images that were stitched together after being sent back to Earth. The color has been adjusted to match lighting conditions as the human eye would see them on Earth.

A yardang is an elongated ridge created by wind erosion. The Yardang Unit is a layer found at the uppermost reaches of the foothills at the base of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain that Curiosity has been ascending since 2014. The color, texture, and tilt of the layers in the Yardang Unit make it distinct from lower layers on the mountain. Mount Sharp is an exciting place for scientists to study because it is made up of a number of layers, each representing a distinct era in the climate of ancient Mars.

Yardangs on Earth are formed by wind erosion, typically of an originally flat surface formed from areas of harder and softer material. The soft material is eroded and removed by the wind, and the harder material remains. The resulting pattern of yardangs is therefore a combination of the original rock distribution, and the fluid mechanics of the air flow and resulting pattern of erosion.

The word itself is of Turkic origin, meaning ‘steep bank’. The word was first introduced to the English-speaking world by the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin in 1903. In China, they are sometimes known as yadan from the Chinese adaptation of the Uyghur form of the same name.

Curiosity was built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California. JPL leads the mission on behalf of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego built and operates Mastcam.

Celebrating 12+ Years on Mars (2012-2024)

Mission Name: Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

Rover Name: Curiosity

Main Job: To determine if Mars was ever habitable to microbial life. 

Launch: Nov. 6, 2011

Landing Date: Aug. 5, 2012, Gale Crater, Mars

For more about Curiosity, visit: science.nasa.gov/mission/msl-curiosity

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Release Date: Nov. 18, 2024

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