NASA releases 360-degree video of Mars' Namib Dune

(NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory)Panorama image of Mars' Namib Dunes recently released by NASA.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released a 360 degrees video of the Namib Dune in the neighboring planet Mars on Youtube, Monday.

With the help of Youtube's 360 VR technology, viewers can now get a wider glimpse of Mars in this newly released video by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, CNN reports. In order to view it, just drag and drop on the clip.

According to NASA, as stated on the video's caption, the 360 image is taken from the downwind face of Namib Dune which includes a portion of Mount Sharp.

"The site is part of the dark-sand "Bagnold Dunes" field along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp. Images taken from orbit indicate that dunes in the Bagnold field move as much as about 3 feet (1 meter) per Earth year," NASA further detailed.

It was taken last Dec. 18 using the Mast Camera (Mastcam) installed on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover during the rover's 1,197th day on Mars. One day in the said planet is about 40 minutes longer than Earth's.

To come up with this wider image, multiple images taken from the Mastcam were stitched together. The collection of images was then color adjusted in order to get that natural look if it's under the Earth's sunlit sky.

In a press release by NASA, the space agency detailed that the bottom of the dune was about 23 feet (7 meters) away from the camera and rises at 16 feet (5 meters) from the rover's base.

The exploration in Mar's Bagnold field is the first close look of an active sand dune outside planet Earth.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is the division that looks over the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Since the exploration started in 2012, the rover has discovered traces of methane, liquid water and has sent samples back to Earth.

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