{"id":15616,"date":"2016-04-03T19:30:47","date_gmt":"2016-04-03T11:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/opportunity-rover-snaps-photo-of-martian-dust-devil\/"},"modified":"2016-04-03T19:30:47","modified_gmt":"2016-04-03T11:30:47","slug":"opportunity-rover-snaps-photo-of-martian-dust-devil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/opportunity-rover-snaps-photo-of-martian-dust-devil\/","title":{"rendered":"Opportunity rover snaps photo of Martian dust devil"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_14051\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14051\" style=\"width: 675px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-14051\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Opportunity-Sol-4332_1b_Ken-Kremer-.jpg\" alt=\"Credit: NASA \/ JPL \/ Cornell \/ Ken Kremer (kenkremer.com) \/ Marco Di Lorenzo\" width=\"675\" height=\"291\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Opportunity-Sol-4332_1b_Ken-Kremer-.jpg 1700w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Opportunity-Sol-4332_1b_Ken-Kremer--300x129.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Opportunity-Sol-4332_1b_Ken-Kremer--768x331.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Opportunity-Sol-4332_1b_Ken-Kremer--1024x442.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14051\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: NASA \/ JPL \/ Cornell \/ Ken Kremer (kenkremer.com) \/ Marco Di Lorenzo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>NASA\u2019s Opportunity Mars rover has captured a dust devil spinning across the barren floor of Endeavour Crater, an impact basin the robot has explored since 2011 in the mission\u2019s long-lived second act.<\/p>\n<p>The color mosaic presented here, created by&nbsp;Dr.&nbsp;Ken Kremer&nbsp;and Marco Di Lorenzo from publicly-available NASA imagery, show the dust devil swirling in the distance with the rover\u2019s tracks in the foreground.<\/p>\n<p>The dust devil passed through the field-of-view of the rover\u2019s navigation camera Friday \u2014 April Fools\u2019 Day \u2014 but the surprise was real.<\/p>\n<p>Opportunity is currently perched on the edge of a steep hill known as \u201cKnudsen Ridge\u201d on the western rim of Endeavour Crater, which spans 14 miles (22 kilometers) across, making it the largest impact site ever visited on Mars.<\/p>\n<p>The rover attempted to scale Knudsen Ridge last month to reach a rock target for analysis by its on-board instruments, but the six-wheeled vehicle fell short, spinning its wheels on a 32-degree incline. Ground controllers re-routed Opportunity to a nearby rock target.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-14055\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Opportunity-Route-Map-Sol-4332_Ken-Kremer.jpg\" alt=\"Opportunity Route Map Sol 4332_Ken Kremer\" width=\"676\" height=\"328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Opportunity-Route-Map-Sol-4332_Ken-Kremer.jpg 1650w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Opportunity-Route-Map-Sol-4332_Ken-Kremer-300x145.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Opportunity-Route-Map-Sol-4332_Ken-Kremer-768x372.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Opportunity-Route-Map-Sol-4332_Ken-Kremer-1024x496.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\"><\/p>\n<p>The region where Opportunity currently resides contains clay minerals that likely formed when Mars was warmer, wetter, and potentially habitable.<\/p>\n<p>The rover arrived at Mars in January 2004, parachuting to an airbag-cushioned landing in Meridiani Planum, a relatively flat, featureless plain pockmarked with scattered impact craters.<\/p>\n<p>Opportunity has driven nearly 27 miles since landing, vastly outliving its 90-day warranty.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Credit: NASA \/ JPL \/ Cornell \/ Ken Kremer (kenkremer.com) \/ Marco Di Lorenzo NASA\u2019s Opportunity Mars rover has captured a dust devil spinning across the barren floor of Endeavour Crater, an impact basin the robot has explored since 2011 in the mission\u2019s long-lived second act. The color mosaic presented here, created by&nbsp;Dr.&nbsp;Ken Kremer&nbsp;and Marco [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1183,367,2721,1561],"class_list":["post-15616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-jet-propulsion-laboratory","tag-mars","tag-opportunity","tag-planetary-science"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15616"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15616\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}