NASA's Curiosity rover and its parachute were spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as Curiosity descended to the

surface on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT). The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera captured this image of Curiosity--the rover and its parachute are in the center of the white box.

The green diamond shows approximately where NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars, a region about 2 kilometers northeast of its target in the center of the estimated landing region (blue ellipse).

This is one of the first images taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT). It was taken through a "fisheye" wide-angle lens on the left "eye" of a stereo pair of Hazard-Avoidance cameras on the left-rear side of the rover.

In this black and white photo released by NASA's JPL-Caltech, This is the first image taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 a.m. PDT. It was taken through a "fisheye" wide-angle lens on one of the rover's front left Hazard-Avoidance cameras at one-quarter of full resolution. The clear dust cover on the camera is still on in this view, and dust can be seen around its edge.

A spectator watches a live stream of the Mars Curiosity landing while listening to an audio broadcast on her phone among the hundreds of other on-lookers in Times Square, August 6, 2012, in New York. After traveling 8 1/2 months and 352 million miles, Curiosity landed on Mars Sunday night.

Steve Collins waits during the "Seven Minutes of Terror" as the rover approaches the surface of mars, inside the Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, The Curiosity robot is equipped with a nuclear-powered lab capable of vaporizing rocks and ingesting soil, measuring habitability, and potentially paving the way for human exploration.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden smiles as the rover begins its decent to the surface of mars, inside the Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

This photo released by NASA shows the view from the balcony of the control rooms at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Dark Room in the foreground, Deep Space Network control room on the right, and the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Mission Support Area, back left, in Pasadena, Calif. The MSL Rover named Curiosity is designed to assess whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms called microbes.

In this photo released by NASA's JPL, Members Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) team work in the MSL Mission Support Area at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory hours ahead of the planned landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars, Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012 in Pasadena, Calif.

Shannon Lampton, and Charlene Pittman, both educators with the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, cheer as they watch NASA's Mars Curiosity rover land on Mars during a special viewing event at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center Monday, Aug. 6, 2012 in Huntsville, Ala.

In a photo provided by NASA, the Mars Science Laboratory team in the MSL Mission Support Area reacts after learning the the Curiosity rover has landed safely on Mars and images start coming in at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Mars, Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012 in Pasadena, Calif.

Alex Trebek in the picture

Lennon Batchelor, 27, of Orlando, center, pauses while watching a live stream of the Mars Curiosity landing while neighboring spectators cheer in Times Square after the successful touch-down, August 6, 2012, in New York. After traveling 8 1/2 months and 352 million miles, Curiosity landed on Mars Sunday night.

Mars Science Laboratory Flight Director Keith Comeaux, left, talks to his team inside the Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. on Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012.

Activity lead Bobak Ferdowsi, who cuts his hair differently for each mission, works inside the Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.

In this photo provided by NASA, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) team welcomes White House Science and Technology Advisor John Holdren, third standing from left, as he stops by to meet the landing team and to say "Go Curiosity" as NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, second from left, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director Charles Elachi, far left look on, Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012 at JPL in Pasadena, Calif.

In this photo released by NASA, an empty jar marked "Days Until Entry" and a jar full of marbles marked "Days Since Launch" sit on a conference room table during a meeting of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The MSL team has been moving one marble a day since launch from jar to jar.

This artist's rendering released by NASA/JPL-Caltech on Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012, shows how NASA's Curiosity rover will communicate with Earth during landing. As the rover descends to the surface of Mars, it will send out two different types of data: basic radio-frequency tones that go directly to Earth (pink dots) and more complex UHF radio data (blue circles) that require relaying by orbiters

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) director Charles Elachi presents a can of "good luck" peanuts during an overview of the status and plans for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at JPL in Pasadena, Calif., Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012. After traveling 8 1/2 months and 352 million miles, Curiosity will attempt a landing on Mars Sunday night.

In this file photo taken Adam Steltzner, Mars Science Laboratory's entry, descent and landing phase leader at JPL uses a scale model to explains the Curiosity rover's Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) during the Mission Engineering Overview news briefing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

This Aug. 2, 2012 file photo shows Nick Lam, data controller, monitoring the Mars rover Curiosity from the Deep Space Network's control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. NASA's Curiosity rover is zooming toward Mars. With about a day to go until a landing attempt, the space agency says the nuclear-powered rover appears on course.

(From L) John Grunsfeld, NASA associate administrator, Richard Cook, MSL deputy project manager, Pete Theisinger, MSL project manager, Adam Steltzner, MSL entry, descent and landing (EDL) lead and John Grotzinger, MSL project scientist from the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

A visitor takes a photo of a sign reading 'Rover Xing' at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California August 2, 2012 ahead of the landing of the Mars rover Curiosity

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission members work in the data processing room beside Mission Control at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California August 2, 2012 ahead of the landing of the Mars rover Curiosity.

Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity members from left: Richard Cook, MSL deputy project manager, Adam Steltzner, MSL entry, descent and landing (EDL) lead and John Grotzinger, MSL project scientist, California Institute of Technology, from the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity Rover mission team celebrate the landing of Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.,

The target landing area for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission was the ellipse marked on this image of Gale Crater. The ellipse is about 12 miles long and 4 miles wide (20 kilometers by 7 kilometers).

A June 2012 revision of the landing target area for Curiosity, the big rover of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, reduced the area's size. It also put the center of the landing area closer to Mount Sharp, which bears geological layers that are the mission's prime destination.

This set of images compares test images taken by four cameras on NASA's Curiosity rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory before launch.

This image shows the topography, with shading added, around the area where NASA's Curiosity rover is slated to land. Red indicates higher areas and purple indicates lower areas, with a total elevation range of about 600 feet (nearly 200 meters). The red oval indicates the targeted landing area for the rover known as the "landing ellipse

This is a close-up view of the northern two-thirds of one of the quadrangles (number 50) that were mapped onto the landing region of NASA's Curiosity rover. Note the presence of layered deposits around the rim of an impact crater, as well as along a scarp that traces through the center of the quad. These exposures are reminiscent of the terrain studied by NASA's Opportunity rover, where exploration was limited to the layered deposits exposed along the flanks of craters.

This image shows engineers predictions of where NASA's Curiosity rover would enter the atmosphere of Mars on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT). The background image is a falsecolor image from the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft.

Painting demo by members of the International Association of Astronomical Artists. Four artists are working on this image of Curiosity on Mars with the point of view being from the Gale Crater. The painting will be presented to Bill Nye. The two men in the photos are artists Aldo Spadoni (left) and Jon Ramer (right) of IAAA.

We had a big party at Riff Raff Studio in Silver Lake in Los Angeles. There were red lights fittingly bathing the party in a Martian glow.

by : Meredith Bennett-Smith www.huffingtonpost.com