Close up of the largest crater on Mars

The Opportunity Mars probe has just sent back to Earth the latest images of the giant Endeavor crater, believed to be the largest on the planet.

Endeavor crater - dating back about 4 billion years - has nearly 23km of Mars-covered sand on the planet that looks like the Sahara or Western desert (Egypt) on Earth, citing information in the Guardian.

Panoramic view of the crater Endeavor is the largest on Mars.

'This is the largest ever volcanic crater on Mars captured by Opportunity , ' said Jim Bell, a scientist at Arizona State University, who analyzed images on Mars. said on the Wired page.

During the period from December 21, 2011 to May 8, 2012 is the winter on Mars, while Opportunity ships are equipped with batteries to absorb sunlight energy.

Therefore, the US Aeronautics Agency (NASA) made the decision to 'not move' Opportunity to another place to lose energy, concentrating only on the crater Endeavor. As a result, Opportunity sent 817 images to Earth in this crater area.

Previously, in August 2008, the exploration ship Opportunity studied Victoria Crater only about 0.8 km in diameter.

The Opportunity probe has undergone 3,000 days of exploration and collected soil samples on Mars. The ship and, together with the Spirit ship, both of NASA, landed on the surface of Mars in January 2004, but so far the Spirit ship has lost contact signals.

According to wired.com, the next " junior " explorer is the Curiosity, which is expected to land on Mars on August 5. Instead of relying on solar panels such as Opportunity, Curiosity ships rely on a nuclear thermal battery that powers ships for decades.