The Red Planet is looking very blue: NASA releases incredible panorama showing Mars like never before
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Incredible footage has been released by NASA which shows the red planet could in fact be blue.
Video captured by the Curiosity spans miles across Mars and in parts the clip appears to show the planet with a blueish tinge.
And a panoramic view from the surface has also been created from images taken by the rover since it landed on Mars in 2012.
The Mars Curiosity landed in Gale Crater and one of its on-board cameras captured 16 separate images at points along its journey at the top of the Vera Rubin Ridge.
(Image: NASA/Youtube)
(Image: NASA/Youtube)
(Image: NASA/Youtube)
These were then put together to form the breathtaking picture.
And thanks to some clever visual effects - the usually red planet gets a blue hue - making the scene more familiar to us humans.
NASA adjusted the colour balance in the images so that the rocks appear as they would during daylight on Earth.
(Image: REUTERS)
(Image: NASA)
The photos taken in October last year looks over the crater which is between 3.5 and 3.8 billion years old.
It also spans an area of 30 miles.
The photos were taken just before northern Mars' winter solstice which means there were clear skies to capture the stunning views.
And because of the thin atmosphere on the planet it means mountains that are more than 50 miles away can be seen in the shots.
(Image: NASA/Youtube)
(Image: NASA/Youtube)
In a written statement, curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada said: "Even though Curiosity has been steadily climbing for five years, this is the first time we could look back and see the whole mission laid out below us.
"From our perch on Vera Rubin Ridge, the vast plains of the crater floor stretch out to the spectacular mountain range that forms the northern rim of Gale Crater."
The space agency also released an annotated version of the panorama photo to point out places from the mission such as "Yellowknife Bay" - an ancient freshwater-lake environment.
They are now preparing to use the robot's drill to analyse powdered rock samples.