Level 1 - Absolute Beginner
NASA has a new picture from Mars. A robot called Curiosity took it. The picture shows tall rocks with strange shapes.
Wind made the shapes. Wind on Mars blows sand against the rock for a very long time. The rock slowly changes.
Curiosity is climbing a big mountain on Mars. It started in 2014. Now it is 1 kilometer higher than where it began.
- rover
- A robot car that drives on another planet.
- Mars
- The red planet.
- wind
- Air that moves.
- cliff
- A high wall of rock.
- mountain
- A very high hill.
- sand
- Tiny pieces of rock.
- picture
- An image, like a photo.
- climb
- To go up.
Level 2 - Elementary
NASA released a new panorama from its Curiosity rover. It was taken on August 11, 2026 with the Mastcam camera. It shows wind-carved cliffs called yardangs, far away on the side of Mount Sharp.
The layer of yardangs is about 10 miles, or 16 kilometers, wide. NASA scientists think it is what is left of a bigger layer. After new material stopped falling on the mountain, wind removed some of it and made the shapes.
Curiosity has been climbing Mount Sharp since 2014. It recently reached 0.6 miles, or one kilometer, of climb. That is the most any rover has climbed on Mars. The lower layers of the mountain were made by ancient lakes and streams.
- panorama
- A very wide picture.
- yardang
- A rock ridge shaped by wind.
- layer
- One level of rock above or below another.
- release
- To make public.
- remains
- What is left of something.
- ancient
- Very old.
- stream
- A small river.
- scientist
- A person who studies nature.
Level 3 - Intermediate
NASA has released a Mastcam panorama from its Curiosity rover, taken on August 11, 2026, that offers the most detailed view yet of distant, wind-carved cliffs on Mount Sharp. The crags are called yardangs, and the layer that holds them stretches roughly 10 miles, or 16 kilometers, across the northwestern part of the mountain.
NASA's explanation is that the layer may be a wind-eroded remnant. After new material stopped settling on the mountain, wind may have stripped some of it away, leaving the ridges standing. Scientists are still working out exactly how the layer formed, and none of the sources describes it as volcanic.
The image also marks a milestone. Curiosity, which has been climbing Mount Sharp since 2014, has now reached 0.6 miles, or one kilometer, of elevation, the most any rover has climbed on Mars. The lower slopes record a wetter past: their layers were built by ancient lakes and streams, and as the water dried up it left salty minerals behind.
- crag
- A steep, rough rock.
- remnant
- A small part that is left.
- erode
- To wear away slowly.
- strip away
- To remove a covering layer.
- milestone
- An important point of progress.
- elevation
- Height above a starting level.
- mineral
- A natural solid substance in rocks.
- formed
- Came into being.
Level 4 - Advanced
NASA's newest Curiosity panorama, captured by the Mastcam on August 11, 2026, delivers the sharpest look yet at a distant field of yardangs, the streamlined ridges that wind carves from soft rock. The layer extends about 10 miles, or 16 kilometers, across the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp, the five-kilometer mountain at the centre of Gale Crater that the rover has been ascending since 2014.
The leading interpretation is subtractive. After new sediment stopped accumulating on the mountain, wind may have stripped away part of the deposit, so the cliffs we see are what the erosion left standing. NASA is careful to say that researchers are still working out how the layer formed, and none of the published descriptions treats it as volcanic in origin.
The context makes the photograph more than scenery. Curiosity has now gained 0.6 miles, about a kilometer, of elevation, the greatest climb any rover has made on Mars, and the strata beneath it were laid down by ancient lakes and streams before the water dried and left salty minerals. Reading upward through those layers is, in effect, reading the planet's climate record from wet to dry, with the yardangs marking the era in which the wind took over.
- streamlined
- Shaped to reduce resistance to air or water.
- flank
- The side of a mountain.
- sediment
- Particles that settle and form layers.
- accumulate
- To build up gradually.
- deposit
- A layer of material left by natural processes.
- strata
- Layers of rock.
- interpretation
- An explanation of what evidence means.
- subtractive
- Working by removing material.
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