The Mars Curiosity rover spent 2014 traveling just a few miles over the surface of the Red Planet, making a wide range of discoveries during the short journey.
Curiosity landed in Gale Crater in 2012, and during 2014, the roving laboratory was able to uncover evidence the area once held a vast lake.
Mount Sharp within Gale Crater has been a mystery to researchers, who were puzzled how a mountain stretching upward for three miles, could form within such a formation.
The Curiosity rover arrived at the base of the mountain in September. Rock faces in the area were later shown to be layered with sediment shaped by the ancient lake in the crater, along with running water and wind. This provided evidence the climate of Mars has changed radically over time, adapting from one set of conditions to another and back again several times. It also suggests that liquid water may have been present at several locations around the alien globe, at different points during the history of the Red Planet.
In order to support liquid water on its surface, the climate of Mars in the ancient past would have had to be far different, with a much thicker atmosphere, than conditions seen in the modern age.
Mission planners were able to take several rock samples during the journey of Curiosity toward Mount Sharp, and through the first leg up the alien mountain.
Early in 2014, the Mars rover crossed a dune for the first time. This hurdle was around three feet high at its center, providing a substantial barrier to the vehicle.
On the last day of January 2014, a camera aboard the Curiosity rover looked into the sky, toward the Earth. Our home planet was photographed, brighter than any other star or planet. Even the moon was visible to Curiosity from the surface of the Red Planet.
Mystery has also followed Curiosity throughout the year. On April 8, NASA announced bright spots on the Red Planet. Some writers on the Internet believed these lights were evidence of alien life.
"In the thousands of images we've received from Curiosity, we see ones with bright spots nearly every week. These can be caused by cosmic-ray hits or sunlight glinting from rock surfaces, as the most likely explanations," Justin Maki from Jet Propulsion Laboratory said.
Over just a few miles traversed during 2014, the rover was able to investigate different geological formations, revealing new information about the history of Mars.
Mission engineers even had some fun with the roving vehicle, combining several images taken of Curiosity by its own cameras, to create a composite "selfie" of the vehicle.
Curiosity marked its second anniversary on the Red Planet on Aug. 2, 2014. Heading into 2015, the observatory continues to carry out valuable science on the alien world.
