Looking In

The Opportunity rover, which recently completed its seventh year on Mars, has been examining a small impact crater, Santa Maria, since December. The top image shows a true-color view of the crater floor from the rover, while the bottom image is a view of the crater from orbit with Opportunity visible as a small dot on its rim. The rover's trail is visible as a horizontal line from the top left part of the crater. Sometime in February, Opportunity will leave Santa Maria and head toward a much larger crater, Endeavour, which is about four miles away (its rim is barely visible as small hills on the horizon of the top image). [NASA/JPL (2)]