PASADENA, Calif. — NASA's Opportunity rover turned a camera
skyward to photograph Mars' moon Deimos eclipsing the sun and
also carried out the most complex movements yet of its robotic
arm to record microscopic images of a rock, the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory said Thursday. Controllers played the Creedence
Clearwater Revival song "Bad Moon Rising" to kick off the
rover's activities for a busy Martian day that concluded at 8:52
a.m. PT (11:52 a.m. ET). The pictures of Deimos, "terror" in
Greek mythology, were taken by the rover's panoramic camera.
They were not immediately released, but would likely be
discussed during a news briefing at 1 p.m. ET Friday. Deimos is
the smaller of Mars' two moons; the larger is named Phobos, or
"fear." Eclipses are much more common on Mars than on Earth, but
much less spectacular. Two months of operation Opportunity has
been studying rocks and soil in a small crater in an area called
Meridiani Planum since landing on the Red Planet in late
January. Scientists announced this week