The Columbia Hills On The Planet Mars

Photo courtesy of NASA.
Today's picture quite literally features a beautiful landscape on another world: the planet Mars. The two hills on the horizon are among those known as the Columbia Hills.

The Martian soil and rocks get their red color from the prevalence of iron oxide. In essence, the entire planet is rusty! This is why Mars has been known as "the red planet" ever since it was first glimpsed through a telescope.

In January 2004, the Mars Spirit rover bounced down onto the Martian surface and quickly began sending one amazing image after another (including this one) back to Earth.

The Spirit and its twin rover Opportunity are still going strong today, each having been granted another 18 month extension on its mission. Not bad for a pair of human-built robots that were initially slated to operate for only 90 days!

Although Spirit and Opportunity are doing their mind-boggling work millions of miles away on Mars, the rovers are actually programmed and controlled by engineers back here on earth at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA.

Picture Of The Day Homepage

Interesting Articles