Cape Verde (Mars)

This article is about a surface feature on Mars. For the nation, see Cape Verde.

Cape Verde
The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity at the rim of Victoria Crater as photographed from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Feature type	cape
Location	Victoria Crater
Coordinates	2°03′S 5°30′W / 2.05°S 5.5°W / -2.05; -5.5Coordinates: 2°03′S 5°30′W / 2.05°S 5.5°W / -2.05; -5.5

Cape Verde is a large promontory and extremity on the rim of Victoria Crater in Meridiani Planum, an extraterrestrial plain within the Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle (MC-19) region of the planet Mars. The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity perched atop this feature in 2006 to take a true-color mosaic of the crater below. Sols 958 to 991 were spent on this cape, including the period of solar conjunction which spanned from sol 970 to sol 984.^[1]

Cape Verde and neighboring Cabo Frio are named after Cape Verde and Cabo Frio, places visited on Ferdinand Magellan's voyage around the world by the ship Victoria.^[2]

Cape Verde can be seen jutting out from the walls of Victoria Crater in this false-color image taken by the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity.
Close-up of Cape Verde.

References

↑ Mars Exploration Rover Mission: 2006 Opportunity Updates
↑ Mission Updates by Steve Squyres, including reference on naming

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