NASA's New Mars Pictures

A full-circle scene combining 817 images taken by the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The US space agency NASA is calling it the "next best thing to being" on the Red Planet. (AFP Photo/)

A TextureCam analysis of a Mars image is able to distinguish rocks from soil.

A Martian dust devil roughly 12 miles (20 kilometers) high was captured winding its way along the Amazonis Planitia region of northern Mars on March 14, 2012 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/UA)

A full-circle scene combining 817 images taken by the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The US space agency NASA is calling it the "next best thing to being" on the Red Planet. (AFP Photo/)
A TextureCam analysis of a Mars image is able to distinguish rocks from soil.
A Martian dust devil roughly 12 miles (20 kilometers) high was captured winding its way along the Amazonis Planitia region of northern Mars on March 14, 2012 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/UA)
This image mosaic taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's panoramic camera shows a new slice of martian real estate southwest of the rover's landing site. The landscape shows little variation in local topography, though a narrow peak only seven to eight kilometres away is visible on the horizon. A circular depression, similar to the one dubbed Sleepy Hollow, can be seen in the foreground. Compared to the Viking and Pathfinder landing sites,