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An image of the Victoria Crater in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The image was captured at more of a sideways angle than earlier images of this crater. This view is similar to what would be observed by looking out the window of an airplane flying over Mars. The camera pointing was 22 degrees east of straight down (east is at the top of the image).

Those "never say die" robots on Mars-- NASA's Spirit and Opportunity--continue to chalk up science at their respective exploration sites. Looming large for the Opportunity rover at Meridiani Planum is Victoria Crater--a grand bit of territory that's roughly half a mile (800 meters) in diameter. That's about six times wider than Endurance Crater, a feature that the rover previously surveyed for several months in 2004, gathering data on rock layers there that were affected by water of long, long ago. "We are closing in ... we've got only about a kilometer to go now," said Steve Squyres, lead scientist at...