Curiosity, NASA's $2.5 billion Mars rover, landed on the Red Planet at about 10:30 p.m. Pacific Time last night after an 8-month, 352 million-mile journey and successful landing at the Gale Crater. Within minutes, it started beaming images back to Earth via orbiting satellites. Here are a few of the earliest shots. Curiosity's (excellent) Twitter feed informs us that we'll be getting higher resolution, color images later this week. For now, just marvel at the fact that you're looking at pictures taken by a robot we put on a planet more than 141 million miles from our sun. This is truly one of the most interesting things humanity's up to right now.
There's regularly updated video (and live broadcasts) about the mission from NASA on Ustream. Oh, and the Gale Crater has its own anthropomorphized Twitter account as well.

















Image artifacts (diffraction spikes and vertical streaks) appearing in a CCD image of a major solar flare due to the excess incident radiation

Ladder leads out of darkness.Photo credit
Woman's reflection in shadow.Photo credit
Young woman frazzled.Photo credit 
A woman looks out on the waterCanva
A couple sits in uncomfortable silenceCanva
Gif of woman saying "I won't be bound to any man." via
Woman working late at nightCanva
Gif of woman saying "Happy. Independent. Feminine." via 
Yonaguni Monument, as seen from the south of the formation. 
