Curiosity sends stunning Mars “Postcard”

Nasa’s Curiosity rover shared a striking new panorama from Mars, taken along a ridge in the foothills of Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater. The image looks down toward the crater floor, with the crater rim visible in the distance.

The photo is stitched together from images taken on two Martian days or sols, at different times, late afternoon on Sol 4,722 and early morning on Sol 4,723, both corresponding to November 18th on Earth. Nasa colourised the final image to show the contrast between morning and afternoon light, making details easier to see.

This marks Curiosity’s third Mars “postcard.” The earlier ones were taken in November 2021, near the base of Mount Sharp and later in Marker Band Valley, also in the mountain’s foothills.

The world’s tallest female dog

Minnie, a Great Dane from North Stonington, Connecticut, has been named the world’s tallest living female dog, measuring 3 feet 2 inches from floor to withers. Her owners, Ken and Lisa Nogacek, adopted her at just two months old and she quickly shot up in size, reaching 35 pounds before her first birthday.

The family first suspected Minnie might be record-breaking when she was around two and a half years old, but waited until she was fully grown at three and a half to make it official. Minnie beats the previous record holder, Lizzy from Florida, by one inch.

Truck crash releases 15,000 live crabs into fields

A truck carrying up to 15,000 live crabs, some lobsters and oysters, crashed into a ditch in Inishowen, County Donegal, Ireland, spilling seafood worth around $70,000. The transport vehicle was travelling from Inishowen to restaurants and shops in Portugal.

The driver was not injured, but the impact sent thousands of the live cargo tumbling out of their aluminium containers and into nearby fields. The road was closed for 18 hours for the recovery operation involving a team of 10 people, night lights and a hydraulic crane. Most of the crabs were manually collected, placed into large bags and reloaded on to the truck.

Hundreds of Victorian shoes discovered on beach

Around 200 Victorian-era shoes and soles were uncovered at Ogmore Beach in Porthcawl, Wales, during a rock pool restoration project in late December. The discovery is being investigated by Beach Academy CIC.

Residents have been finding similar shoes along the South Wales coast for years and officials are now considering two main explanations. One is that the shoes came from the Frolic, a 19th-century cargo ship from Italy that wrecked on nearby Tusker Rock, with items gradually washing up. The other theory suggests cobblers dumped worn-out, unmendable shoes into the Ogmore River in the 1960s.

Published in Dawn, Young World, February 7th, 2026