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Opportunity

Opportunity was a NASA Mars rover, part of the Mars Exploration Rover mission, that landed in Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2004. Originally designed for a 90‑sol mission, it operated for nearly 15 years—more than 5,000 sols—traversing over 45 km and providing strong evidence that Mars once held liquid water. It ceased communications after a global dust storm in June 2018 and was declared complete in February 2019.

Source: science.nasa.gov

APODs including "Opportunity"

Two New Hubble-Quality Telescopes Gifted to NASA

10/06/2012

Two New Hubble-Quality Telescopes Gifted to NASA
Image Credit: NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

What if you were given a new Hubble telescope for free? How about two? The astronomical community is abuzz with just this opportunity as the US National Reconnaissance Office has unexpectedly transferred ownership of two space-qualified Hubble-quality telescopes to NASA. The usefulness of these telescopes in addressing existing science priorities has begun, but preliminary indications hold that even one of these telescope could be extremely useful in searching for extrasolar planets as well as distant galaxies and supernovas that could better explore the nature of dark energy. Although they start out as free, making even one telescope operational and fitting it with useful cameras would be quite expensive, so NASA is being decidedly careful about how to fit these new telescopes into its existing budget. Pictured above, the original Hubble Space Telescope floats high above the Earth during a servicing mission in 2002. Prefer Spanish?: Follow APOD's new Facebook feed "Universo"