NASA's Webb telescope, Curiosity rover make Time's best inventions list

• The Curiosity rover was recognized for its decade-plus of exploration on Mars, searching for signs of past life.
• The James Webb Space Telescope was honored for being a technological marvel that allows scientists to see deeper into the universe than ever before.
• Curiosity has been exploring Mars since 2012, while the Webb telescope began its cosmic operations in 2022.

Two of NASA's giants of cosmic discovery have been named among the best inventions of the past quarter-century – at least, according to Time magazine.

The media company recently assembled a list of the 25 "most iconic inventions" it has covered since 2000, when it first began putting out an annual list of the best inventions of the year. Among the list are two NASA spacecraft that have for years helped humanity better understand our place in the universe: the Curiosity rover on Mars and the James Webb Space Telescope.

The Webb telescope, widely considered a successor to the iconic Hubble Space Telescope, has peered more deeply into the cosmos than any instrument that came before it.

Curiosity, meanwhile, has spent more than a decade scouring Mars for clues that the red planet could once have been home to life. Its findings have transformed our understanding of a place where NASA and billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX have interest in sending humans in the years ahead.

Here's what to know about the James Webb Space Telescope and Curiosity rover, as well as how the spacecraft came to be on Time magazine's prestigious list.

TIME names 2 NASA spacecraft among best inventions

To mark a quarter century of selecting breakthrough inventions as the year's best, Time recently compiled a "Hall of Fame" list of the best of the best from the past 25 years.

Among the selections were the Curiosity rover and Webb space telescope. Time published the list in October, which NASA highlighted in a Dec. 12 blog post, adding that "the inventions are celebrated in TIME’s December print issue."

Of Curiosity, Time's Merrill Fabry wrote, "landing with a plan for a couple years of investigation, over 13 years later the rover is still on Mars making discoveries." Time included Curiosity on its list of the year's best inventions in both 2011 – when it launched from Florida – and 2012, when it landed on Mars.

As for Webb, "the largest telescope ever catapulted into space," Fabry described it as "a technological marvel that’s allowed scientists to observe farther into the universe and in more detail than was previously possible." It was included in Time's best inventions list in 2022 after its first year of operation.

In a statement, Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, congratulated the teams of both Webb and Curiosity.

“NASA does the impossible every day, and it starts with the visionary science that propels humanity farther than ever before,” Fox said in the statement. "Through their work, distant galaxies feel closer, and the red sands of Mars are more familiar, as they expanded and redefined the bounds of human achievement in the cosmos for the benefit of all.”

What is the James Webb Space Telescope?

The James Webb Space Telescope launched on Christmas Day 2021 aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from the European Space Agency's Ariane Space Spaceport in French Guiana.

Webb, which then began its cosmic operations in July 2022, was designed to operate for up to 10 years. But as fortune would have it, the mission team determined the observatory should have enough propellant to allow it to operate in orbit for more than 20 years.

Billed by NASA as "the largest, most powerful and most complex telescope ever launched into space," the James Webb Space Telescope far surpasses the abilities of its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope. The observatory is named for NASA's second-ever administrator.

Orbiting the sun rather than Earth, Webb is outfitted with a gold-coated mirror more than 21 feet in diameter and powerful infrared instruments to observe the cosmos like no instrument before.

What is NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars?

NASA's Curiosity rover, along with Perseverance, is one of the agency's two car-sized robots exploring the Martian surface for signs that the planet was once habitable.

Scientists believe the geology of Mars may hold valuable clues about past ancient life, and so the robotic vehicles, controlled remotely from Earth, have slowly navigated the rocky terrain to scoop up and collect intriguing samples. In fact, in September, NASA officials confirmed that one of Perseverance's finds contained a potential biosignature.

The Curiosity rover began its voyage to Mars in November 2011, landing in August 2012 in the Gale Crater on the boundary between Mars' cratered southern highlands and its smooth, northern plains. While exploring the crater, believed to have formed 3.7 billion years ago, Curiosity has collected 42 powderized rock samples with the drill on the end of its robotic arm.

The Curiosity rover's primary destination is Mount Sharp, which rises from the floor of the crater.

Since reaching Mars in 2021, Perseverance has been exploring inside – and now on top of – the Jezero Crater, which scientists believe formed 3.9 billion years ago from a massive impact.

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected]