The picture shows not only the six-wheeled vehicle, but also all the components of its discarded landing system.
These items include the heatshield, the parachute and backshell of the entry capsule and the skycrane that lowered the rover to the surface.
The image was acquired by the Mars Reconnaissance Oribter from 300km and at an oblique angle of 41 degrees.
A signal confirming the Curiosity rover (also known as the Mars Science Lab, MSL) had landed on Mars was received here at mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at 05:32 GMT; 06:32 BST on Monday (22:32 PDT Sunday).
The first hours on the surface have been spent checking out the health of the vehicle and retrieving some early engineering pictures that tell the mission team about the location where Curiosity landed.
These images include a series of 300 thumbnails that can be run as a sequence showing the last moments of Monday's descent.
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter
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