Mars Rover Opportunity still rolling 10 years on, sends selfie back to Earth to prove it

By Les Shu Published January 27, 2014

It’s amazing that it has been 10 years since the Mars Rover Opportunity landed on the surface of Mars. Sure, we’ve long forgotten about that day in 2004 on January 25, but Opportunity is still rolling around the fourth planet from the sun, even though it has completed its mission long ago. In keeping up with the times, Opportunity transmitted a photo back to Earth, selfie-style. The photo was recently posted to NASA’s popular Astronomy Picture of the Day website.

The photo, taken with its panaromic camera sometime between January 3 and 6, shows the rover covered with dust that nearly camouflages it – blending into the Martian surface. A windstorm had cleared away some of the dust prior to the photo being taken, so we’re able to distinguish Opportunity from the background.

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NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is making the photo available as a high-res JPEG or TIFF download to everyone. Click here to get it.

(Via PetaPixel; image via NASA)

Les Shu

Former Senior Editor, Photography

I am formerly a senior editor at Digital Trends. I bring with me more than a decade of tech and lifestyle journalism…

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