NASA's rover captures gorgeous panoramic view of the Martian landscape
NASA
But it's not from the rover you think. Don't forget about Opportunity, who's been exploring the planet for eight years.
With all the focus on the Mars rover Curiosity, the awesome work coming out of the eight-year-old Opportunity can get overlooked. But Opportunity is still going strong, thousands of days after it landed on the planet. Opportunity's initial mission was to explore a region of Mars known as the Eagle Crater. But when it wrapped that up in just three months, scientists said, hey, we've got a working rover on Mars, let's keep going!
It then spent four years exploring nearby craters before setting out on a three-year journey to the Endeavour Crater, where it arrived last year. During the Martian winter running from December of 2011 to May of 2012, Opportunity stayed in one spot, its solar panels waiting to catch the sun's rays in the springtime. As it waited, it documented the view around where it sat, an outcrop known as Greeley Haven.
NASA has now taken 817 of the images to create this panorama, presented in false color to enhance the topographic features. So here it is in all its panoramic glory: Mars, a desolate sphere of rocks and dust, millions of miles away.
Read more and see more images at The Atlantic.
Read more and see more images at The Atlantic.