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This stunning picture was snapped by the Mars Curiosity Rover on the latest leg of its exploration mission.

The panoramic selfie is actually made up of 57 different photos taken while the vehicle was climbing a hill.

The montage shows the NASA buggy on the Namib Dune, to the northwest of Mount Sharp - the main mission site.

Curiosity holds the Mars Hand Lens Imager camera at arms length - in the same way a human would take a selfie - and then takes multiple pictures to make a panorama.

The interstellar snap was taken on January 19 - the vehicle's 1,228th day on Mars.

(Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech​/MSSS)

Curiosity has sent other selfies back to earth , including one to celebrate one Martian year on the planet - 687 days.

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It has been scooping and sieving samples of sand near Mount Sharp.

Billions of years ago, a crater next to the peak was filled with water, according to the latest results.

The conditions back then could have allowed microbial life to flourish - if it ever existed on Mars.