If you watch CNN, you’ve already seen the first super badass awesome image of the Phoenix lander descending to the surface of Mars. Here’s a followup:
That’s another shot, also taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, of the Phoenix lander, this time falling about 12 miles in front of the 6-mile wide crater “Heimdall.”
Why is this so cool? Well, aside from the fact that we landed a spacecraft on Mars, both of those objects were moving at ridiculous speeds when the photos were taken. You’re basically looking at “a speeding bullet photographed by a speeding bullet.”
~CKL
