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Photos | Cool images from Mars

Credit: Getty Images

In this handout image provided by NASA and released on August 9, 2012, a color image from NASA's Curiosity Rover shows the pebble-covered surface of Mars. This is a portion of the first color 360-degree panorama from NASA's Curiosity rover, made up of thumbnails, which are small copies of higher-resolution images. The mission's destination, a mountain at the center of Gale Crater called Mount Sharp, can be seen in the distance, to the left, beginning to rise up. The mountain's summit will be imaged later. Blast marks from the rover's descent stage are in the foreground.