The NASA rover Opportunity bounced onto an equatorial Martian plain called Meridiani on Jan. 25, half-a-planet away from its convalescing twin, Spirit. Not since 1976 had twin rovers landed on Mars, and never before had five spacecraft?three orbiters in addition to the rovers?simultaneously surveyed the Red Planet.
ROCKY VIEW. Image taken by the Mars rover Opportunity shows outcroppings just inside the rim of the rover’s small home crater.
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