Mars orbiter captures image like we've never seen before says NASA

One of NASA's Mars orbiters has captured an image the likes of which has never seen before, NASA itself has claimed.

On February 28, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover was captured in what's believed to be the very first orbital image of it driving across the Red Planet.

The image below shows a dark speck at the front of a long trail of rover tracks, which are likely to last for months before eventually being erased by wind.

It was taken by the HiRISE (high-resolution imaging science experiment) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, according to a NASA release.

One of NASA's Mars orbiters captured an image of the Rover driving across the planet's surface believed to be for the very first time / NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

NASA said the tracks span around 320 metres and represent around 11 drives which started on February 2 with the Curiosity reaching a staggering top speed of 0.16kph.

Doug Ellison, Curiosity's planning team chief at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said: "By comparing the time HiRISE took the image to the rover's commands for the day, we can see it was nearly done with a 69-foot drive."

Curiosity travelled from Gediz Vallis channel on the journey to its next stop with is a region with potential boxwork formations that could have been made by groundwater from billions of years ago.

In the image, Curiosity's tracks lead to the base of a steep slope, which has since been ascended, and it's expected to reach its new destination within a month or so.

Elsewhere, half the universe's mass has been discovered, ending a decades-long mystery, and Saturn and Venus recently formed a 'smiley face' with the moon.

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