NASA lands newest rover on the Red Planet

Touchdown.

NASA's new Mars rover landed on the surface of Mars early Monday morning.

After eight months and 532 million miles, NASA's "Curiosity" rover landed on the red planet and sent back black and white images.

The rover will spend the next two years exploring the Gale Crater. The crater was once believed to be filled with water.

"The potential return from understanding the planetary history of Mars is really huge and will certainly affect our plans going forward for other science missions to Mars," John Grunsfeld said.

The mission doesn't come cheap.

NASA spent $2.5 billion on the Mars rover.