Mars Pictures Astound Scientists

NASA scientists have said they are "astonished" at the first
pictures beamed back from Mars by the rover vehicle Opportunity.

The images sent by the probe show a smooth plain, near a rocky outcrop.

The landscape is quite unlike the boulder-strewn site on the other
side of Mars where its sister craft, Spirit, landed three weeks earlier.

Opportunity’s landing site was chosen because of evidence that water
once flowed there.
Opportunity touched down on the Martian surface at 0505GMT on Sunday,
and within hours the first images were transmitted to Earth.

The most distinctive feature is an unusual outcrop of bedrock in the
distance.

Professor Steve Squyres, chief scientist on the mission, was left almost
speechless. "I am flabbergasted. I am astonished, I’m blown away," he
said,"As I was looking at the pictures, I was trying to find the
words to tell you what we were seeing. I still can’t. I still don’t know
what
we’re
looking at."

from the BBC