The US Rover Spirit has captured this high-resolution panorama of the surface of Mars (CAUTION: Very large image.). It’s the highest-resolution image ever taken on the surface of another planet and shows much detail of the landing site.
Mars is rather fascinating in that it is both alien (salmon-covered sky) and strangely familiar (rocks and sand). It’s like the kind of environment where you wouldn’t be terrifically surprised to see some grizzly old prospector wandering around with his donkey. Of course, if one were to step onto the Martian surface unprotected you’d die of asphyxiation in seconds, but still, there’s something strangely familiar about the Martian landscape all the same.
It will be interesting to see what Spirit finds in Gusev Crater – if it can find evidence of water in the Martian rocks. Such a discovery would prove that Mars had a warmer, wetter past, and would mean that the possibilty of Mars either now or once having life is that much greater.
2 thoughts on “Mars… IN COLOR!”