NASA's Mars Exploration Program (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Sol 2082: Selfie at Gale Crater

This panorama combines 83 exposures taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) during the Sol 2082 of Curiosity's work on Mars (June 15, 2018)

A Martian dust storm has reduced sunlight and visibility at the rover's location in Gale Crater.

A storm of tiny dust particles has engulfed much of Mars over the last two weeks and prompted NASA's Opportunity rover to suspend science operations. But across the planet, NASA's Curiosity rover, which has been studying Martian soil at Gale Crater, is expected to remain largely unaffected by the dust. While Opportunity is powered by sunlight, which is blotted out by dust at its current location, Curiosity has a nuclear-powered battery that runs day and night.

The Martian dust storm has grown in size and is now officially a "planet-encircling" (or "global") dust event.

Written by Lonnie Shekhtman

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Other panoramas of Mars by Curiosity rover: