"And how about that view?!?"

That was Cornell's Steve Squyres' question, posted in his blog last week after the Mars rover Opportunity rolled up to the edge of Victoria Crater on Sept. 27.

On Friday (Oct. 6), as NASA held a press conference to unveil the latest images, the world got to see even more of what he was talking about.

At the Washington, D.C., briefing at NASA headquarters, the space agency's administrator Michael Griffin introduced Squyres, the principal investigator for the space agency's Mars Exploration Rover mission and Cornell's Goldwin Smith Professor of Planetary Science; and Jim Bell, Cornell associate professor of astronomy and lead scientist for the rover's panoramic camera (pancam).

And Squyres and Bell introduced the breathtaking views.

Also at the briefing were Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration program, and Alfred McEwen, Arizona State University astronomer and principal investigator for the imaging instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The MRO just arrived on the scene for a five-year mission and is surveying the planet from 275 kilometers (171 miles) above its surface, giving the rover team a spectacular aerial perspective.

Victoria Crater, at about a half-mile wide and 200 feet deep, offers an unprecedented look back into Martian history. By analyzing its layers upon layers of rock with Opportunity's scientific payload, researchers hope to find clues about what the environment was like on the planet billions of years ago and how it has changed over time.

But first, said Squyres, the rover team needs to find a safe way into the crater -- and a safe way out. That means spending a little time circumnavigating the rim and planning strategy. Also, the team has about a week to get the rover into position for conjunction, the period of several weeks when Mars passes behind the sun and communication between Earth and the twin rovers Opportunity and Spirit is limited.

"We still have a lot to do," said Bell. "For me this week has sort of felt like opening a book -- maybe a mystery novel. And you read the first few lines, the first few pages, and you're hooked. ... I'm totally hooked, as so many on the team are. And really looking forward to reading the rest of the story."

So stay tuned, he added. The pancam images are still coming, albeit slowly as Mars creeps behind the sun. (Find them at http://pancam.astro.cornell.edu/pancam_instrument/index.html.)

Check out the MRO image, too -- not just of the giant crater with its rippled edge; but also of the little dark smudge on the rim, and the tiny light dot beside the smudge.

That's Opportunity (and her shadow), 200 million miles from Earth, perched on the tip of Cape Verde on day 960 of her 90-day mission.

Take in the scenery.

And how about that view?