JavaScript is required
JPL Logo
Image

Opportunity Rover on Valentine's Day 2014

April 9, 2014
This is the latest image of NASA's Opportunity rover at Solander Point, where it spend a few week investigation Pinnacle rock (the 'jelly donut') that was flipper over by the rover wheel. This observation is from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Context Image

This is the latest HiRISE image of Opportunity rover at Solander Point, where it spent a few weeks investigating Pinnacle rock (the "jelly donut") that was flipped over by the rover wheel.

We planned this image when this "new" rock was first seen; one hypothesis was that a recent impact deposited the rock. We see no obvious signs of a very recent crater in our image, but a careful comparison to prior images might reveal subtle changes (besides the rover position).

Changes in this region of Mars might be most likely from the action of wind (there are active sand dunes on the floor of Endeavour Crater), but new impacts could occur anywhere. The rover is located in the exact center of the color cutout.

HiRISE is one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the orbiter's HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Keep Exploring