(CNN) -- Humanity's curiosity about Mars has led to an exciting event: the dramatic landing of an SUV-sized rover, set for 1:31 a.m. ET Monday. NASA's $2.6 billion rover, Curiosity, will make its dramatic entrance into Martian territory in a spectacle popularly known as the "seven minutes of terror." This jaw-dropping landing process, involving a sky crane and the world's largest supersonic parachute, allows the spacecraft carrying Curiosity to target the landing area that scientists have meticulously chosen. The spacecraft is "healthy and right on course," according to the latest update from NASA. Curiosity has been traveling away from Earth since November 26.
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The dramatic landing of the SUV-sized rover is set for 1:31 a.m. ET Monday
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This landing process involves a sky crane and the world's largest supersonic parachute
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Curiosity's first stop slated to be Gale Crater, which may have once contained a lake
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The vehicle will be controlled from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Unlike on Earth, however, @placeholder has no plate tectonics, so the Martian layers are flat and not disrupted as they would be on Earth.