New rover Curiosity arrives on Mars (photos)

This is the first color image from Curiosity as the new Mars Rover unpacks itself from its landing gear. The image shows the north wall and rim of Gale Crater. The image is somewhat blurry due to dust picked up on the lens dust cover during its landing. The dust cover will be opened in about a week.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

This image taken from the surface of Mars shows the shadow of Curiousity and the target of its long journey, Mount Sharp. The mountain rises 3.4 miles above the planet's surface - higher than Mount Whitney.

The Curiosity rover as spotted by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

This image shows dust rising due to engines of Curiosity as it  approached for landing. The rover was about 70 meters above the surface when the picture was taken.

As Curiosity descended toward the surface of Mars, it took this photo of its 15-foot wide heat shield. The image was taken about 3 seconds after the heat shield separated from the main craft - about 50 feet away and 2 1/2 miles above the planet's surface. 

Here's another image taken from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Due to the angle of the picture, Curiousity will actually land farther north than the image would appear.

Right after Curiousty landed, this image was taken by the Mars Descent Imager and shows the ground it landed upon.

NASA describes this image as Curiosity was 1 minute and 6 seconds before landing:

"This image from Curiosity's Mars Descent Imager reveals surface features including relatively dark dunes, degraded impact craters and other geologic features including small escarpments that range in size from a few feet (meters) to many tens of feet (meters) in height."

This is the first image from Curiosity on the Martian surface. A clear dust cover still covers the camera. You can see a wheel on the bottom right.

One of the first images from Curiosity was taken by a rear camera and shows the left wheel and a fin on the radioisotope thermoelectric generator (the rover's power source).

Here's an image of Curiosity's planned landing site. It should be within the blue circle and most likely where the yellow diamond is shown.

This image was taken by a fish-eye camera on Curiosity and shows part of the rim of Gale Crater, a feature the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined.

NASA scientists are jubilant after the successful landing of their rover.

One of the first images by Curiosity from the surface of Mars shows its own shadow.

This image shows the planned landing site.

Curiosity on Earth with some of its parts labeled. It looks like an alien robot - oh yeah, that's exactly what it is.