NASA’s Curiosity rover recently made headlines by capturing a rare nighttime image of the Martian landscape. This happened on December 6, 2025, the 4,740th Martian day of its mission. While the photo was taken a couple of months ago, NASA just released it to the public, creating buzz among space enthusiasts.
Curiosity’s team used its onboard LED lights—usually reserved for lighting up shadows during the day—to snap this nighttime shot. The picture sheds light on a drill hole located in a rock nicknamed “Nevado Sajama.” The drilling method recently changed, resulting in rougher holes that can be hard to analyze. But the team believed that this specific hole was worth documenting at night.
Tex Kubacki, the Mastcam Operations Lead at Malin Space Science Services, explained how this unique image came about. He noted that the camera took a longer exposure of about 5 seconds. For context, typical daytime shots take just 0.015 seconds. This means that the nighttime scene was about 300-400 times dimmer than the sunlight on Mars. Kubacki highlighted that the LEDs help to counter the reddish hue from Martian sunlight, making colors appear more accurate, almost like they would on Earth.
Interestingly, Curiosity’s LEDs are not very powerful—it’s comparable to lighting a few candles. Each LED has a brightness of only 450 to 715 millicandelas, while a typical candle burns at around 1,000 millicandelas. Despite this, the LEDs have proven invaluable for gaining clearer insights into Martian rock compositions.
Curiosity has consistently delivered stunning images over the years. It previously captured breathtaking views merging day and night, along with portraits of Earth from Mars. In fact, its cameras have been subjects of curiosity themselves, as other space cameras have been snapping photos of Curiosity in action from orbit. This intertwining of exploration reminds us of the collaborative nature of space science.
As we look at the impact of these images, it’s clear that they fuel interest and research, showing us not just what Mars looks like, but also how we might better understand distant worlds. Each photo tells a story, and the excitement around these discoveries is alive and well, inspiring future generations.
For more on this and other exciting developments in space, you can check out NASA’s full release here.
Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
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