Nasa rover Curiosity lands on Mars

In a show of technological wizardry, the robotic explorer Curiosity blazed through the pink skies of Mars, steering itself to a gentle landing inside a giant crater for the most ambitious dig yet into the red planet’s past.

A chorus of cheers and applause echoed through the Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory after the most hi-tech interplanetary rover ever built signalled it had survived a harrowing plunge through the thin Mars atmosphere.