Martian dust storm threatens rovers' survival

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This photo taken by the rover Opportunity shows the Martian sky darkening over the first 30 Martian days of the storm. The number at the top of each frame is the opacity measurement (higher numbers mean dustier skies) and the numbers at the bottom ar ...
This photo, taken by the rover Opportunity, shows the Martian sky darkening over the first 30 Martian days of the storm. The number at the top of each frame is the opacity measurement (higher numbers mean dustier skies), and the numbers at the bottom are the mission sol (Martian day) number and local time on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell

In the three-and-a-half years that they've been on Mars, the NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity have never seen anything like this: a large-scale dust storm that has darkened the skies and put the rovers in the gravest danger they have yet faced.


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