NASA reveals astonishing panoramic images of the Martian surface

It's the surface of the Red Planet, but you'd be forgiven for thinking NASA's latest image was snapped in the deserts of New Mexico.

The space agency's Curiosity Rover has beamed back incredible panoramic images of Mars which show a landscape that doesn't look a million miles away from parts of Earth.

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The image and video capture an area called Murray Buttes, which was named in honour of planetary scientist Bruce Murray (1931-2013), a former director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

NASA wrote: "The buttes and mesas are capped with rock that is relatively resistant to wind erosion. This helps preserve these monumental remnants of a layer that formerly more fully covered the underlying layer that the rover is now driving on.

"Early in its mission on Mars, Curiosity accomplished its main goal when it found and examined an ancient habitable environment.

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"In an extended mission, the rover is examining successively younger layers as it climbs the lower part of Mount Sharp. A key goal is to learn how freshwater lake conditions, which would have been favourable for microbes billions of years ago if Mars has ever had life, evolved into harsher, arid conditions much less suited to supporting life.

"The mission is also monitoring the modern environment of Mars."