The first colour pictures of the surface of Mars taken by the Curiosity robot have been released by NASA.

The craft landed on the red planet yesterday in one of the most-complex space missions ever attempted.

Shortly after it sent back grainy pictures in black-and-white.

Scientists say it may be a long time before Curiosity is able to find out whether conditions were ever right for life to exist.

The Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory now begins its planned primary one-Martian-year (98 week) mission of discovery and exploration.

See pictures taken by the Curiosity below.

The stop-motion video below shows 297 frames from the Mars Descent Imager aboard the Curiosity rover as it descended to the surface of Mars.

Relive the terror and joy as the Curiosity rover successfully landed on Mars the evening of August 5th.