Astronomy Picture of the Day - Shadow of a Martian Robot

NASA ^ | 22 Feb, 2026 | Image Credit: NASA, JPL, Mars Exploration Rover Mission

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: What if you saw your shadow on Mars and it wasn't human? Then you might be the Opportunity rover exploring Mars. Opportunity explored the Red Planet from 2004 to 2018, finding evidence of ancient water, and sending breathtaking images across the inner Solar System. Pictured here in 2004, Opportunity looks opposite the Sun into Endurance Crater and sees its own shadow. Two wheels are visible on the lower left and right, while the floor and walls of the unusual crater are visible in the background. Caught in a dust storm in 2018, Opportunity stopped responding, and NASA stopped trying to contact it in 2019 and declared the ground-breaking mission, originally planned for only 92 days, complete.

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TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[No name given]

Cool.

[Nateman]

Odd how the ridge near the horizon looks blurry.

[ridesthemiles]

DOES THE WEBB TELESCOPE KNOW WHERE MUSK’S RED MUSTANG IS??

[telescope115]

Cast a long shadow…

[rx]

Shadow of a Martian... what?

This image was taken by Navcam; Left A (NAV_LEFT_A) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 50 (2012-09-26 13:59:04 UTC

[MtnClimber]

He who casts the longest shadow casts the best shadow.

[DannyTN]

[telescope115]

🙂

[Deaf and Discerning]

[cuban leaf]

Pretty cool, and it reminds us why we will never send men to Mars. No need. It’s not worth the cost nor risk. And robots keep getting better and better.