Now, this is just wonderful...

The Mars reconnaissance Orbiter satellite flying over Mars has snapped up a picture of the Victoria crater just when Opportunity was on its edge (it'll try to descend to its bottom as soon as the earth-based pilots work out a safe way). The instrument used was the HiRISE.

The Picture is just awesome... down I've put a thumbnail. Click on the link to see a version were the position or the rover is annotated - click on the one below to get a huge 4045x5085 pixel version - you can actually see the rover in it!!! isn't that something?



It makes me feel mars as a living planet, with the blue-ish streaks on the upper part (caused by wind-blown dust?), and the cracked bottom, like a lake dried in the summer. but also an alien place, with big and small craters constituting the main terrain's feature...

I wish one day I'll get there... for the moment, I'll keep dreaming about it.

ps: thanks to John M. Lynch for letting me know about this.