Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Oblique view of Victoria crater from HiRISE

Oblique view of Victoria crater from HiRISE
Oblique view of Victoria crater from HiRISE The HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this oblique view of Victoria crater on July 18, 2009. Ordinarily, MRO's instruments are pointed straight downward, but to capture this view it looked 22 degrees away from nadir, toward the east. (East is to the top in this image.) The unusually oblique view allowed HiRISE to photograph the west-facing cliffs of the scalloped capes surrounding the crater. The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity spent more than a Mars year exploring Victoria crater, from September 2006 through August 2008, partially circumnavigating it before entering it briefly to examine the steep cliffs up close. Opportunity's tracks are visible as slightly lighter-colored, reddish-toned straight lines on the left side of the image, punctuated by dots, marking the spots where Opportunity turned in place. NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona
Oblique view of Victoria crater (annotated)
Oblique view of Victoria crater (annotated) Image: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UA / annotations by Emily Lakdawalla