Gale Crater
Gale Crater is a 154 km wide crater with a 5 km tall mountain in the middle, explored by the Curiosity rover since 2012. See it in 3D at real scale.
- Location
- 4.6° S, 137.4° E, near the Martian dichotomy boundary
- Size
- about 154 km across
- Landed
- Curiosity, August 2012
- Highlight
- Mount Sharp (Aeolis Mons), about 5 km above the floor
Gale Crater is a huge, ancient impact crater just south of the Martian equator. Its most striking feature is in the middle: a layered mountain officially called Aeolis Mons and widely known as Mount Sharp, which rises about 5 km above the crater floor.
The layers of Mount Sharp record millions of years of changing conditions on Mars, from times when water was common to drier eras later on. Reading them from the bottom up is like reading a history book, and that is exactly what the Curiosity rover has been doing since it landed in August 2012.
What to look for
- Mount Sharp. From orbit the mountain dominates the crater. In the 3D view you can follow how its slopes rise from the floor.
- Bagnold Dunes. A field of dark, active sand dunes at the foot of the mountain that Curiosity crossed and studied up close.
- Ancient lake beds. Curiosity found evidence that Gale once held lakes with water that could have supported microbial life.
- Curiosity's route. The rover's real traverse is shown on the map, and panoramas from its Mastcam cameras are pinned where they were taken.
Driving Gale in Trawers
Gale is one of the high-detail regions in the game. Land near Curiosity's site and head for Mount Sharp, or set your own route across the crater floor. At real distances, crossing the whole crater would take you far longer than it looks from orbit.