Spirit and Opportunity

Figure obtained from Astronomy Picture of the Day

        For this week the picture that I chose to do was this photo above. It was posted January 25^th 2012 on Astronomy Picture of the Day. This picture is of mars that were taken by the rover, named Opportunity.  The picture was taken because last November the rover needed to find a place to go in order to last the winter.  The rover gets its energy form the solar panel and because November is when the winter is starting to come to the Northern hemisphere of Mars it would have reduced amount of sunlight. This means that Opportunity would not have the extra power that is needed to keep the equipment warm. In the blurb under the picture is said that this lack of sunlight could drain the batteries. In order to stop this from occurring Opportunity had to climb on a 15 degree incline and this gave the extra sun that was needed.  Opportunity is supposed to explore Endeavour Crater which is an impact basin. The hope is to get the rover to explore this basin if it survives the winter.  The scientists that work with Opportunity had many objectives when it was launched. It was built to search for and to characterized a variety of rocks and soils that may give clues to past water activity. It is thought that there has been water on Mars previously but because of the distance it is away from the Sun as well as its small size the liquid water could not last. Mars is further away from the Sun than Earth and therefore would need a thick atmosphere in order to maintain the liquid water. This is no longer the case but that does not stop scientists from trying to determine what Mars was like in the past and if there is a chance that there will be life even if it is tiny.