A mighty dust storm swirled around the Opportunity rover on Fulwa (2025) Hindi Short FilmJune 10, 2018, forcing the robot to shut itself off and conserve power. The dust blocked out nearly all the sunlight, turning day to night.
Opportunity would never awake. On Wednesday, NASA announced that they would no longer attempt to revive the 15-year-old machine, formally ending the legendary extraterrestrial mission.
But on that dark June day, just before Opportunity went silent, the rover took one final picture:
The image captured a Martian world shrouded in darkness by the dust storm.
"This was the last image we ever took," Bill Nelson, chief of the Opportunity mission's engineering team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in an interview just after NASA declared the mission over.
"We are looking at an incredibly small amount of sunlight -- .002 percent of the normal sunlight that we would expect to see," said Nelson. "If you were there, it would be late twilight. Your human eye would still be able to make out some features, but it would be very dark."
But in this final image, no Martian features are visible.
In the picture, the white static amid the black is just image noise the camera picked up in the darkened setting ("It's kind of like the image you get on your phone in a very dark environment," said Nelson). The thick black bar at the bottom of the picture is data that never arrived back to Earth -- as if Opportunity's message was cut off mid-sentence.
SEE ALSO: A 12-mile, underground lake may have been found on Mars. What could live there?If the rover had not been caught in such a dust storm, it would have taken a picture down a channel, about 20-feet across, as Opportunity peered down a valley, said Nelson.
So-called "Perseverance Valley" became Opportunity's final resting spot.
Six days earlier, Opportunity captured the following picture of the wide, sloping environment.
Over the course of Opportunity's life, the rover shot well over 200,000 images and sent them back to Earth.
One of Nelson's favorites came just 180 Martian days, or sols, into Opportunity's exploration of the red planet. With the sun shining behind the rover, Opportunity captured an image of its long shadow.
"It's very evocative of the status of that rover," said Nelson. "Here we are, with one tiny rover on this foreign, alien planet all by itself."
Now, the 400-pound robot will spend millennia getting shrouded in red dust, and NASA engineers like Nelson will move on to other extraterrestrial projects, as will his entire NASA exploration team.
"It's bittersweet," said Nelson, noting how proud he is to have worked with engineers and scientists that directed Opportunity for some 15 years. "Now, our teams are going to sort of scatter to the winds."
Samsung Galaxy S25 leak teases new AI featuresBest headphones deal: Save $50 on Sony WH1000XM4Utah Jazz vs. Miami Heat 2025 livestream: Watch NBA onlineAtlanta Hawks vs. Los Angeles Lakers 2025 livestream: Watch NBA onlineOpelka vs. Lehecka 2025 livestream: Watch Brisbane International final for freeRepublican exec Joel Kaplan replacing Meta's global affairs honcho Nick CleggBest Kindle Scribe deal: Save $85 at AmazonCES 2025: Lili for Life unveils dyslexiaNYT Strands hints, answers for January 3NYT Connections hints and answers for January 5: Tips to solve 'Connections' #574.NYT mini crossword answers for January 3, 2025CES 2025: The Electric Salt Spoon is the weirdest thing at CESCommanders vs. Cowboys 2025 livestream: How to watch NFL onlineWaymo stopped Los Angeles man from stealing a driverless carWordle today: The answer and hints for January 4, 202549ers vs. Cardinals 2025 livestream: How to watch NFL onlineBest Kindle Scribe deal: Save $85 at AmazonBest robot vacuum deal: Save $100 on iRobot Roomba Q0120NYT Connections Sports Edition hints and answers for January 6: Tips to solve Connections #105Commanders vs. Cowboys 2025 livestream: How to watch NFL online This company claims it will make you a watch using your cat's hair The Huawei Watch 2 (and Android Wear 2) have all the same smartwatch problems 'Final Fantasy XIV' just got a whole lot more appealing for newcomers You need these photos of Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft He's back: YouTuber Casey Neistat resurrects vlog Americans now trust ads more than news and who can blame them? These new educational apps will help Syrian refugee kids learn and play 10 burning questions we have about the 'Spider These terrible photos might explain why Donald Trump rejected an offer to throw a first pitch Elon Musk's SpaceX is betting big on its rocket launch this week 5 best budget smartphones of 2025, so far Elon Musk, please jam a computer into my brain Samsung goes after Apple at home with new Connect Home hub Watch Bill O'Reilly snicker through his non India's 'anti A Samsung Experience Store in Singapore caught fire Cyclone Debbie proved one thing: Australians are super weird College girls use 56 boxes of mac and cheese as a bath bomb and we don't know why Samsung changed the Galaxy S8 battery because of the Note 7 disaster Corgi wearing a mermaid tail is the real queen of the sea
1.9253s , 10137.359375 kb
Copyright © 2025 Powered by 【Fulwa (2025) Hindi Short Film】,Exquisite Information Network