Mar's Super-Frigid Landscape Captured by NASA's On-Site Rover

Although NASA's latest "next best thing to being there" picture beamed from Mars (courtesy of Rover Opportunity) displays a landscape quite similar to the ones found on Earthly deserts, the climate of both "deserts", if you will, shouldn't be likened one to the other.

The image actually represents a series of images Rover Opportunity took between the dates of Dec. 21, 2011 and May 8, 2012, or Martian winter (winters last six months in the red planet).

Opportunity was stationed atop the rim of what on Earth was named Endeavour Crater in order to save up on power and keep its electronics warm, according to Wired. Its hibernation however was not marked with total idleness since it snapped 817 pictures of Mar's super frigid landscape.

Average temperatures in Mars hover around  -67 °F (-55 °C), with the hottest climate rising to approximately 81 °F (27 °C) and the coldest to -225 °F (-143 °C) at its polar caps, according to MarsNews.com and Astronomy Cafe.

On Earth, temperature extremes range from  136.0 °F(57.8 °C) , the hottest, to -128.6 °F (-89.2 °C), the coldest.

As NASA released the high-definition picture this week, it celebrated the 15th anniversary of robotic presence in the planet as well as the Opportunity's 3,000th day in operation.

In the picture, it is apparent that Mar's surface reflects a brownish and orange-ish color, but NASA has explained that some colors are in fact false colors, included to distinguish between materials in the scene.

One can also view the rover's tracks imprinted on Martian soil including the Rover's own solar panels.

Two rovers, the Opportunity and the Spirit landed on Martian territory on January 2004.

An additional rover, the Curiosity, will make a very risky landing on Mars on August 5th of this year. Once on Martian soil, Curiosity will begin its two-year mission to find out if life ever existed on Mars.

Click on the photo for a better complete view (enlarge).

Desert in Al Ahmadi, Kuwait