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Spirit Takes Snapshot of Earth

Posted by michael on from the all-the-way-back dept.

ControlFreal writes "On its 66th Sol on Mars, Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has obtained its first full view of crater Bonneville. In doing so, Spirit achieved its primary travel destination, as set out in its initial itinerary. Furthermore, Spirit has now travelled more than 300 meters, thereby fulfilling its minimum mission success criteria. With this, and Opportunity halfway through its primary mission, and having discovered very strong indications of a wet Martian past, NASA has truly many an astonishing interplanetary succes story! See the overview at the Mars Rover site for more details." Another reader writes "Among the 'money-shots' from the Mars rovers would have to rank the 'pale blue dot' image released today--a view looking back towards Earth. The larger image also includes the horizon and Sun, which because the Earth is seen as an inner planet closer in towards the Sun from a martian perspective, is difficult to photograph without saturation by solar glare."

3 of 257 comments (clear)

  1. Re:They're not fooling anyone... by l0wland · · Score: 0, Redundant

    And if you take a close look at the background of the Bonneville crater, you can actually see an empty can of Coke blinking in the sunlight.

    --

    "Honey, I feel a certain distance between us..." "Really? A 31ms ping ain't that bad..."
  2. I'm not a Conspiracy Theorist, but... by buzzoff · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Look at the picture of the crater. Do you see the white speck in the middle of the upper left quadrant? What is that? Whatever it is, it jumped out at me as soon as I saw the photograph.

    --
    "Never tell me the odds"
  3. Re:YAY by zangdesign · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I CAN SEE MY HOUSE FROM HERE :D

    And so can any Martians that are hiding out there in the desert.

    I'm lamer than you! Wait ... uh ...

    --
    To celebrate the occasion of my 1000th post, I will post no more forever on Slashdot. Goodbye.