Incredible Opportunity: ’90-day rover’ celebrates 12th anniversary on Mars

Opportunity examining the rock outcrop called “Private John Potts” on the southern side of Marathon Valley. The rover has just passed its 12th anniversary milestone and is still going strong. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Opportunity examining the rock outcrop called “Private John Potts” on the southern side of Marathon Valley. The rover has just passed its 12th anniversary milestone and is still going strong. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

We’ve all seen the commercials for the Energizer Bunny, which keeps going and going and going… it just never seems to stop. This makes for an interesting analogy with the Opportunity rover, which is just now passing its 12th anniversary on Mars. Not just 90 days, as hoped for, but 12 years and counting. Incredible. And in that time, Opportunity has helped to fundamentally alter our understanding of this fascinating world.

Read MoreIncredible Opportunity: ’90-day rover’ celebrates 12th anniversary on Mars

Image Gallery: odd ‘shavings’ in Spirit of St. Louis crater on Mars

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Odd “shavings” on rock after brushing (left side of image). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

An interesting image from the Opportunity rover, sol 4023. There are a lot of little shavings-like bits on this brushed rock inside the Spirit of St. Louis crater. Are they just a peculiar result of the brushing of dust by the rover instrument or something else? Are they bits of the rock itself or other embedded material? Similar ones were seen once before, but they seem to be uncommon, even after most brushings.

Read MoreImage Gallery: odd ‘shavings’ in Spirit of St. Louis crater on Mars

Image Gallery: Martian sunset and Lindbergh rock mound

Sunset in Gale crater, as seen by the M-34 and M-100 Mastcam cameras on Curiosity. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/James Sorenson
Sunset in Gale crater, as seen by the M-34 and M-100 Mastcam cameras on Curiosity. The bluish sunsets are uniquely Martian, the opposite of sunsets on Earth. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/James Sorenson

Two new beautiful composite images, from two different rovers and locations on Mars. The first is a sunset in Gale crater, taken by Curiosity. Martian sunsets look bluish due to the light scattering effects of reddish dust in the atmosphere. The other image, from Opportunity, is of the scenic Lindbergh rock mound in the Spirit of St. Louis crater, on the rim of the huge Endeavour crater. A natural monument!

Read MoreImage Gallery: Martian sunset and Lindbergh rock mound

About that ‘mystery rock’ on Mars: no it’s not a plant, but…

Microscopic Imager (MI) closeup view of Pinnacle Island showing the whitish colouring around the edges and the darker appearing "jelly" interior. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
Microscopic Imager (MI) closeup view of Pinnacle Island showing the whitish colouring around the edges and the darker appearing “jelly” interior. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

There has been a lot of discussion the past few days about that lawsuit filed against NASA for supposedly covering up / failing to investigate evidence of life on Mars by the Opportunity rover. This all has to do of course with that “mystery rock” found by Opportunity, nicknamed Pinnacle Island, which somehow just appeared near the rover (most likely dislodged and kicked up by one of the wheels) a few weeks ago.

Read MoreAbout that ‘mystery rock’ on Mars: no it’s not a plant, but…