Mars Rover Opportunity’s Panorama of ‘Marathon Valley’ (Stereo)

"Marathon Valley" on Mars opens northeastward in this stereo scene from the panoramic camera (Pancam) of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity.

The image combines views from the left eye and right eye of the Pancam to appear three-dimensional when seen through blue-red glasses with the red lens on the left. The component images were taken during the period April 16 through May 15, 2016, corresponding to sols (Martian days) 4,347 through 4,375 of Opportunity's work on Mars.

The vista spans from north, at the left, to west-southwest, at the right. The high point in the right half of the scene is "Knudsen Ridge," which forms part of the southern edge of Marathon Valley. The fractured texture of Marathon Valley's floor is visible in the foreground.

The rover team calls this image the mission's "Sacagawea Panorama," for the Lemhi Shoshone woman, also commemorated on U.S. dollar coins, whose assistance to the Lewis and Clark expedition helped enable its successes in 1804-1806. Many rocks and other features in Marathon Valley were informally named for members of Lewis and Clark's "Corps of Discovery" expedition.

Opportunity entered Marathon Valley in July 2015. The valley's informal name was chosen because Opportunity's arrival at this point along the western rim of Endeavour Crater coincided closely with the rover surpassing marathon-footrace distance in its total driving odometry since landing on Mars in January 2004. The team's planned investigations in the valley were nearing completion when the component images for this scene were taken.