A "breathtaking" space selfie from Mars has been revealed by NASA scientists.

The image is actually made up for 57 individual pictures, taken by its Curiosity robot, and stitched together to celebrate a big moment for the space agency.

This is the first time the Curiosity robot, which resembles the adorable Disney creation Walle-E, has conducted a chemical experiment in the clay-rich Glen Etive crater.

Two small drill holes can be seen to the left of the rover where scientists hope to find the remains of bacterial life which died over millions of years ago.

NASA scientists have been waiting seven years to find the right place for the rover to conduct the wet chemistry experiments in the portable lab in its belly.

SAM Principal Investigator Paul Mahaffy of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, US, said: ‘We’ve been eager to find an area that would be compelling enough to do wet chemistry.

"Now that we're in the clay-bearing unit, we've finally got it."

Curiosity landed on Mars in 2012 and the Glen Etive is said to be a "strategic location" that will reveal more about how the clay-bearing unit formed.

Scientists built upon the valuable dress rehearsal at Ogunquit Beach in Maine, Conneticut, in the US to make adjustments that improved the recent experiment.

Mr Mahaffy added: "SAM's data is extremely complex and takes time to interpret. But we're all eager to see what we can learn from this new location, Glen Etive."

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