NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity has its plans for New Year’s Eve all sorted out — it will be poking around a football-field-size crater called Santa Maria.
Opportunity made it to Santa Maria, which is about 295 feet (90 meters) wide, on Dec. 16. It will spend a few more weeks examining rocks exposed at the crater, checking out minerals that likely formed in the presence of water billions of years ago, researchers said. The Santa Maria stop marks a slight detour for Opportunity, which is making its slow, steady way to a giant crater called Endeavour.