Mars' reddish dust covers the Opportunity rover's solar panels in this downward-looking view, assembled from images taken by the NASA probe's panoramic camera from Dec. 21 to 24, 2011. The mosaic was put together in such a way as to omit the mast on which the camera is mounted.

One of the trickiest things that NASA's Opportunity rover does on Mars is take a look at itself — but for the six-wheeled rover, it's been a vital part of its eight-year-plus mission on the Red Planet.

This picture illustrates why the occasional once-over is so important: Because Opportunity relies on solar power, mission controllers back on Earth need to know how much dust is accumulating on the rover's solar panels. It's been a while since the dust has been swept off by Martian winds, and so there's quite a bit of dust covering the power-generating cells right now.

The dust hasn't been so much of a concern during the previous southern winters that Opportunity has spent in Meridiani Planum on the Red Planet. But as winter approaches this time, NASA has decided to position the rover on a north-facing slope so that it can soak up as much of the sun's weak rays as possible. That's a strategy that the rover team employed in the past with Opportunity's twin, the Spirit rover, which now lies moribund in Gusev Crater on the other side of the planet.

Opportunity is conducting research in place as it sits on the north-facing slope of a ridge known as Greeley Haven, on the rim of the 14-mile-wide Endeavour Crater. The rover's going to be there for a while: Mars' southern winter solstice takes place on March 30, and the planet's seasons last roughly twice as long as Earth's. So we'll be seeing a lot of the rover's surroundings at Greeley Haven — including the current focus of its scientific studies, a rock called Amboy.

For comparison's sake, here's a picture of Opportunity's relatively clean solar panels from September 2007:

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell

This mosaic shows Opportunity's solar panels in September 2007 as seen by the rover's panoramic camera. The downward-looking view has been assembled to omit the mast on which the camera is mounted.

And here's a real treat from space artist Don Davis: A painstakingly assembled mosaic of imagery from Opportunity, looking east-southeast over Endeavour Crater to the far side just before sunset. You can see Opportunity's dust-covered solar panels and color-calibration sundial in the foreground. In the distance, you can see the long shadows cast on the crater floor — including the slight bump of a shadow that could well have been cast by Opportunity itself. It's a picture to marvel over, and astronomer/educator Stuart Atkinson does his fair share of marveling on the "Road to Endeavour" website. Emily Lakdawalla provides further details about Davis' rendition on the Planetary Society Blog.

Copyright Don Davis / NASA / JPL / Cornell

Don Davis created this mosaic from imagery sent back from Mars by NASA's Opportunity rover as the sun was setting on Jan. 27. The rover is looking out from a ridge toward the far rim of Endeavour Crater. The shadow of the ridge, and Opportunity itself, can be made out on the crater floor, toward the right edge of the image.

A little section of this picture served as this week's "Where in the Cosmos" picture puzzle on the Cosmic Log Facebook page earlier today. It didn't take long for Josh Jones to figure out what the picture showed, and to reward his mastery of a Martian mystery, I'm sending him a pair of 3-D glasses. Join the Cosmic Log Facebook community and stay tuned for the next "Where in the Cosmos" puzzle.

Speaking of Mars, my space-watching colleagues and I touched upon Red Planet research and other cosmic topics during the Weekly Space Hangout on Thursday. To wind up the week, here's the webcast, courtesy of Universe Today's Fraser Cain:

More about Mars:

• Rocks hint at strong quakes on Mars
• Mars orbiter spies on past probes
• NASA aims to shift money from Mars to space tech

Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.

An image captured Jan. 29 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows Bonneville Crater, with the Spirit rover's landing platform off to the side. Can you spot the platform? How about the Spirit spacecraft's heat shield?

Color pictures taken from Martian orbit feature the landing spots for two of NASA's dearly departed probes on the Red Planet. Can you spot the Spirit rover's landing platform in the picture?

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell

The panoramic camera on NASA's Spirit rover looks back at its landing platform just after rolling onto the Martian surface in 2004.

Bonneville Crater is easy to find: That was Spirit's first big destination after its landing in January 2004, and it took weeks for the six-wheeled robot to get there. But it's harder to make out the three-petal lander that was Spirit's home base for the airbag-cushioned landing.

If you haven't spotted it yet, the lander is the small bright object in the lower left corner of the picture above, captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's high-resolution camera on Jan. 29. The reddish tint suggests that Mars' red dust is accumulating on the platform.

MRO's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, has taken pictures of the site before, but only in black and white.

Making out the Spirit spacecraft's heat shield, which was jettisoned during the final stage of the descent, is even more challenging. It's the bright spot at the 12 o'clock position on the rim of the 650-foot-wide crater. That heat shield was jettisoned as planned during Spirit's descent.

Spirit got a good look at the crater and plenty of other sites during its five-year, 4.8-mile trek. Don't bother to hunt for the rover in the orbital picture. It went way beyond the right side of the frame, clambering up the Columbia Hills, chronicling the planet's dust devils and turning up ample evidence of liquid water on ancient Mars.

By the time 2009 rolled around, the rover was struggling with a gimpy wheel and got itself stuck in a patch of soft Martian soil near a 300-foot-wide plateau nicknamed Home Plate. Scientists believe the rover's solar arrays were no longer able to provide enough power to keep Spirit going through the harsh Martian winter, and it fell out of communication with NASA in March 2010. After more than a year of trying to re-establish contact, NASA ended Spirit's mission.

NASA / JPL-Caltech / UA

This annotated image traces the Spirit rover's trek from its landing site in 2004 to its final resting place near a feature known as Home Plate.

Spirit's twin, Opportunity, is still in operation on the opposite side of the Red Planet, more than eight years after landing. Not bad for a couple of golf-cart-sized machines that were expected to last just 90 days.

Just as NASA was winding down its efforts to revive Spirit, HiRISE caught the glint of sunlight reflected by the rover's solar arrays. The fresh picture of the landing site serves as a renewed remembrance — but I have a feeling this won't be the last we see of Spirit. Every once in a while, it's nice to check in on the robot that did so much for planetary science. 

Picturing Phoenix
The same could be said for NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander. That spacecraft touched down in the Red Planet's north polar region in May 2008 and spent several months studying the frozen surface. Phoenix was the first probe to see Martian water ice close up, and watch it disappear as vapor.

Phoenix went dormant after several months of work and presumably fell prey to Mars' winter weather. But Phoenix's scientific legacy is alive and well: One study, published last August, cited Phoenix data to suggest that Martian soil might be more capable of supporting life than previously thought. Another report with a different spin came out just this month: Researchers said the soil collected by the Phoenix lander hinted at a Martian "superdrought" that lasted for hundreds of millions of years.

HiRISE snapped an amazing picture of Phoenix during its descent through the Martian atmosphere, and sent back more photos of the probe during and after its mission. The latest image was acquired Jan. 26 and released today.

NASA / JPL-Caltech / UA

A Jan. 26 image acquired by the high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the Phoenix Mars Lander spacecraft in Mars' north polar region after its second Martian winter. The defunct lander is the bright spot at the center of the frame.

Will Mars orbiters still be able to see something 10, 20 or 30 years from now? Will humans ever walk where Phoenix or Spirit now sit? Feel free to reflect on the latest views of NASA's past probes in the comment section below.

More from Mars:

• Crazy colors from the Red Planet
• Is the case for Mars facing a crisis?
• Scientists thrilled by rover's mineral find
• Mars-bound rover adjusts its course

Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.

This false-color view of Toro Crater on Mars was captured on Dec. 1, 2011, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and released on Wednesday. The different colors reflect different mineral composition on the Martian surface.

There's not much red in this picture of the Red Planet, produced by the high-resolution camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Browns and blues and greens and yellows and violets ... but red? Not so much. There's a method in this colorful madness: The riot of color tells scientists that, mineralogically speaking, this is a wildly diverse region of Mars.

The orbiter took this picture of Toro Crater in Mars' northern hemisphere back on Dec. 1, and the processed version was released just this week. The University of Arizona's Alfred McEwen, principal investigator for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment or HiRISE, says the different colors point to different kinds of minerals that may have been altered through the action of liquid water and heat on ancient Mars.

HiRISE's views in different wavelengths can be tweaked to tell geologists things about surface composition that you might not notice in a "true color" photograph.

"In general, the blue and green colors indicate unaltered minerals like pyroxene and olivine, whereas the warmer colors indicate alteration into clays and other minerals," McEwen writes in his image advisory. "The linear north-south trending features are windblown dunes that are much younger than the bedrock."

Such hydrothermal alteration could get a closer examination elsewhere on Mars when NASA's Curiosity rover touches down in Gale Crater this August.

For more of this crazy imagery, check out this longer, higher-resolution view of the Toro Crater scene. If you've got red-blue glasses, you'll get a kick out of this 3-D version. The HiRISE home page will point you to thousands of pictures from Mars — some in true color, some in false color, some in black and white, and some in 3-D red and blue. Feel free to go crazy.

S. Robbins / Moon Mappers / CosmoQuest / NASA

This image of the moon shows craters that have been identified by citizen scientists as part of the Moon Mappers project. The blue circles indicate raw IDs by individual users, while the red circles indicate craters identified by a computer program that groups together individual markings.

Where in the Cosmos?
On the Cosmic Log Facebook page, we've been featuring a series called "Where in the Cosmos" — in which we put up a curious space picture for people to puzzle over. Last week, I posted a picture of some cratered terrain with red and blue circles all over it. It took less than 24 hours for Robert Dryden to figure out that the picture showed some of the first results from a citizen-science project called Moon Mappers.

Scientists have long studied craters on the moon to trace the evolution of the solar system. The distribution and estimated ages of lunar craters have led astronomers to conclude, for example, that the inner solar system weathered a hailstorm of impacts known as the "Late Heavy Bombardment" about 4 billion years ago.

Crater counting is a valuable exercise, but it's hard to automate. Moon Mappers, a project presented by the CosmoQuest website, is calling upon the wisdom of crowds to help scientists make sense out of the imagery being sent back to Earth by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Similar citizen-science projects, organized by Zooniverse, have yielded published research — and Moon Mappers is likely to be similarly productive. So if you want to take part in some real science, consider joining the Moon Mappers team.

The moon picture was doubly apt, because of the Moon Mappers angle as well as the past week's political debates over future moon missions. For the latest word in that debate, check out this commentary by NBC News' longtime Cape Canaveral correspondent, Jay Barbree.

I posted this week's "Where in the Cosmos" picture puzzle earlier today, and within an hour several Cosmic Log Facebookers figured out that it was a 3-D view of the Snowman crater chain on the asteroid Vesta, as seen by NASA's Dawn probe. This means that Jarin Udom, Joan Tweedell and Ryan Anthony Sebastian Carroll join Robert Dryden in the winner's circle. They're all eligible to receive 3-D glasses once I get their mailing addresses.

To get in on the next "Where in the Cosmos" puzzle, be sure to hit the "Like" button on the Cosmic Log Facebook page ... and if you're already a fan, thanks for being part of the community!

More fun with space pictures:

• Jan. 27: 3-D color map of the universe
• Jan. 20: Stephen Hawking's curios explained

Slideshow: Get an eyeful from outer space

ESO / VISTA / J. Emerson / EPA

Gaze into the Helix Nebula's golden eye and see the other cosmic highlights of January 2012.

Launch slideshow

Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.

G. Neukum / FU Berlin / DLR / ESA

A stereo image from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter, based on data acquired in 2004, shows the shield volcano known as Tharsis Tholus. Use red-blue glasses to see the 3-D effect.

NASA's 3-D video of the asteroid Vesta is a stunner, but there are other places you can go in the solar system using red-blue glasses.

Take Mars, for example: Last month the European Space Agency released pictures of the semi-gigantic Tharsis Tholus volcano, which rises 5 miles (8 kilometers) above the Martian surface and spans 75 miles.

G. Neukum / FU Berlin / DLR / ESA

This image of the 5-mile-high Martian shield volcano known as Tharsis Tholus is color-coded to reflect elevation. The lowest elevations are in green, violet and purple. The highest elevations are in red and brown.

It's no Olympus Mons, which is 16 miles high and as big as the state of Arizona, but it's big nevertheless.

The stereo image from ESA's Mars Express orbiter looks right down the wide throat of Tharsis Tholus' caldera. ESA notes that at least two sections have collapsed around the volcano's eastern and western flanks during 4 billion years of geological history, leaving behind scarps that are several miles high.

The color-coded elevation map at right provides another way to get a sense of the terrain, but you can't beat 3-D glasses for giving you the sense that you're hanging right over the caldera's 20-mile-wide maw.

Stuart Atkinson, an educator and amateur astronomer from Britain, has mastered the trick of producing 3-D imagery from NASA's Opportunity rover on Mars, and he regularly posts pictures to his "Road to Endeavour" website. In last week's status report on Opportunity's progress, Atkinson shared several red-blues, including the vista shown below.

S. Atkinson / NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell

Ridges rise up in this Martian vista, seen by NASA's Opportunity rover as it studies Endeavour Crater.

Here's what Atkinson says about the picture:

"Just imagine you’re there. ... Imagine you’re slogging up that ridge in your heavy, bulky spacesuit, with your ragged, exhausted breathing rasping in your helmet. ... Eventually you reach the top of the ridge and pause for breath, hands on your knees, bent over. ... When you look up you find yourself looking down at the floor of Endeavour, at the dark dust dunes rippled across it, at the waves of wind wafting gently over it. ... Then you lift your eyes and see, on the far side of the great crater, the eastern hills, shining orange and gold in the sunlight. ...

"People will actually do that for real one day.

"How I envy them."

Me too.

Mercury was another target for stereo pictures, this time taken by NASA's Messenger probe. The picture below is a red-blue combination showing the floor of 19-mile-wide Kertesz Crater. Messenger acquired the image data in July, but the photo was released last month. The floor of the crater is covered with the "hollows" that made headlines during a recent Messenger science briefing, and the 3-D effect gives the imagery an extra dimension.

NASA / JHUAPL / CIW

This is an anaglyph created from two images of Mercury's Kertesz Crater. Use red-blue glasses to see the 3-D effect. With this anaglyph, better results may be achieved by tilting the head slightly to the left.

How to see in 3-D
By now you're probably wondering where to get the red-blue glasses you need to see the 3-D effect. Inexpensive cardboard spectacles are generally inserted in 3-D books or DVD packages — but for the pictures that you see on this page and on most other websites, you'll want to make sure you have the red-blue (or red-cyan) filters rather than amber-blue or green-magenta filters.

The red-blue glasses may be available at novelty shops, and you can also order them online. Here's a list of vendors from NASA. In addition to the outlets on NASA's list, there's Amazon.com and 3DGlasses.net. NASA even provides instructions for making your own 3-D glasses.

Today I gave away free 3-D glasses to the first 10 folks to go to the Cosmic Log Facebook page and post a comment specifically asking for them.  Don't worry, there'll be another 3-D giveaway once I scrounge up some more of the cardboard glasses. The red-blue specs are provided courtesy of Microsoft Research, which includes 3-D imagery in its WorldWide Telescope astronomy software. (Microsoft and NBC Universal are partners in the msnbc.com joint venture.)

Once you have your glasses, click through these links to sample more 3-D goodies from outer space:

• Take a wild ride over Vesta in 3-D
• NASA's past and future in 3-D
• See the asteroid Vesta in 3-D
• See the ultimate space shot in 3-D
• Explore the 3-D depths of Mars
• Get a fresh 3-D look at Phobos
• See a Martian crater in 3-D
• See a Martian milestone in 3-D
• See the Martian arctic in 3-D
• See more depths of Mars in 3-D
• 3-D delights from Mars
• Still more from Mars in 3-D
• Go on a space mission in 3-D
• See the moon's marvels in 3-D
• Saturn's moons in 3-D
• More from outer space in 3-D
• Fly through a nebula in 3-D
• Cosmic Log's 3-D-O-Rama

Last updated 11:50 p.m. ET.

Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

NASA / JPL / Univ. of Ariz.

An image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the Opportunity rover on the rim of Santa Maria Crater (indicated by arrow) with the tracks of its wheels extending toward the left edge of the frame (visible as a faint reddish line).

Two heads are better than one, even if the "heads" happen to be the cameras built into two different space probes. Here's a fresh picture from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, a camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which shows the Opportunity rover as a speck perched on the rim of a 300-foot-wide Martian crater known as Santa Maria.

Amazingly, the tracks of the rover can be seen trailing off to the left across the plains of Meridiani Planum.

NASA often uses orbiters and rovers as a double team to identify sites of interest from the air and then investigate them on the ground. For example, the orbiter's CRISM spectrometer indicates that there is hydrated sulfate at Opportunity's location, which suggests that liquid water once flowed through the area. The rover is currently taking a closer look at the minerals to study their composition in detail. The same double team will come in handy when Opportunity travels to an even bigger hole in the Martian ground, the 14-mile-wide Endeavour Crater.

Opportunity has been going strong on Mars for more than seven years, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is also in it for the long haul. NASA notes that Thursday marks the fifth anniversary of the orbiter's entry into Martian orbit. It seems like yesterday ... but since that time, MRO has sent back 131 trillion bits of data, including more than 70,000 images that are cataloged on the HiRISE website. That's more data than all other interplanetary missions combined.

Check out these links for more about Mars:

• Slideshow: People's choice pictures from HiRISE
• Mars meteorite craters: Make mine a double
• Slideshow: The greatest hits from Mars 
• Explore the 3-D depths of Mars

Join the Cosmic Log community by clicking the "like" button on our Facebook page or by following msnbc.com science editor Alan Boyle as b0yle on Twitter. To learn more about Alan Boyle's book on Pluto and the search for planets, check out the website for "The Case for Pluto."  

ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / G. Neukum

A stereo image shows an unnamed crater near Huygens Basin in Mars' southern hemisphere. Look at the image through red-blue glasses to get the 3-D effect.

Mars has some of the highest mountains and deepest valleys of the solar system — but you might not realize that unless you're looking at 3-D imagery of the Red Planet. So put on your red-blue glasses and check out some of the latest stereo imagery from interplanetary orbiters.

First up is today's picture of an elongated crater in the Martian southern hemisphere, as seen by the stereo camera aboard the  Mars Express orbiter. The picture was taken last August but has just been released by the European Space Agency. The crater has all the hallmarks of a cosmic impact, but instead of taking on the usual round shape, it's drawn out as if something struck a glancing blow on the surface.

That's pretty much what scientists think happened: A wider-angle view of the scene shows yet another stretched-out crater off to the north-northwest, directionally aligned with the main crater. That suggests that a train of orbital debris circled inward and hit the surface at a shallow angle. There's other evidence to support that hypothesis, including a butterfly-like splash pattern that spreads out on either side of the crater.

In today's image advisory, the European Space Agency says more of these elongated features will be formed in the future: "The Martian moon Phobos will plow into the planet in a few tens of millions of years, breaking up in the process, and likely creating new chains across the surface." That'll be something for future Mars colonists to watch for ... or watch out for.

NASA / JPL / Univ. of Arizona

A stereo image shows a volcanic vent and the vestiges of lava flows on Mars. Look at the image with red-blue glasses to get the 3-D effect.

Our second 3-D highlight comes from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, or MRO. This geological feature looks similar to the impact crater spotted by Mars Express, but it's the result of a completely different phenomenon. The University of Arizona's Alfred McEwen, principal investigator for MRO's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, says this is actually a volcanic vent, sitting on top of a Martian shield volcano.

Lava likely flowed out of this vent repeatedly, with "spatters" of molten rock creating an elevated rim around the vent. "Could these vents be the source of atmospheric methane that has recently been detected on Mars? No, they are old and dusty, like every volcanic vent imaged so far on Mars," McEwen writes in his image advisory.

Such vestiges of Mars' volcanic past could become the focus of future exploration. Astrobiologists speculate that collapsed lava tubes might have provided a haven for microbial communities on Mars, and pit caves on Mars (or on the moon, for that matter) may offer the safest locations for settlements.

NASA / JPL / Univ. of Ariz.

An image captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows light-toned layers in a crater south of Crommelin Crater. Red-blue glasses provide a 3-D effect.

The 3-D image above shows something completely different — the crazy, cratered terrain south of Crommelin Crater, around the Martian equator. The picture, showing the region's light-toned layers, was acquired by MRO last October.

There's lots more to see in 3-D — but if you're looking at these red-blue anaglyphs, you really need 3-D glasses to get the full effect. I believe every household should have a set of the stereo specs lying around. If you're missing out, here's how to remedy the situation: Inexpensive red-blue glasses are generally available at novelty stores, and you may also find them included with 3-D books or DVDs. NASA's website for the STEREO mission provides a list of mail-order outlets, as well as instructions for building your own 3-D glasses.

Here at Cosmic Log, we've distributed hundreds of 3-D glasses that are provided free of charge by Microsoft Research's WorldWide Telescope project. (Microsoft and NBC Universal are partners in the msnbc.com joint venture. WorldWide Telescope's developers have the glasses made up as a promotional item for their astronomy software, which includes 3-D imagery.)

Just today we've given out more than 30 pairs of glasses to folks who "like" the Cosmic Log page on Facebook. If you'd like to keep posted on future giveaways, please visit the page, hit the "like" button and become a full member of the Cosmic Log community.

For still more cool cosmic imagery, in 2-D, check out the latest installment of our Month in Space Pictures slideshow. This week we're featuring the shuttle Discovery's last mission as well as stunners from space telescopes and interplanetary probes. Click on the links below for larger versions of the pictures and additional background:

• Closing in: A perfect lineup for the shuttle and the space station.
• Swirls of ice: Shikotan Island as seen by EO-1 satellite.
• Cosmic reflections: Messier 78 nebula served up by MPG/ESO telescope.
• Pool practice: Bigger version of the AP picture from Star City.
• Continent in the sky: Spitzer's infrared view of the North America Nebula.
• Monster blast from the sun: You'll love this video from the Solar Dynamics Observatory.
• Saturn's northern storm: Planetary Society's Emily Lakdawalla explains Cassini imagery.
• Getting ready for a walk: See more images from Discovery's Flight Day 5.
• Welcomed with open arms: Station's robotic arm grabs Japanese cargo craft.
• Light show: A dazzlingly big picture of Norway's northern lights.
• Ready for landing: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter sees crater in color.
• Walking on a mock Mars: Simulation crew practices for Red Planet mission.
• A ring of black holes: Chandra and Hubble team up on a galactic pair.
• A grand galaxy: Hubble's majestic view of the galaxy NGC 2841.
• Time to move out: Get a wider perspective on Discovery's preparations for flight. 
• Jumpin' Jupiter: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory explains what smacked Jupiter.
• Remembering Challenger: Learn more about the 1986 Challenger tragedy and its legacy.
• A stunning sight: Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli rocks the house with his Flickr pics.
• Eyes on the sky: Beautiful vista from the European Southern Observatory.

Still more cosmic views in 3-D:

• Get a fresh 3-D look at Phobos
• See a Martian crater in 3-D
• See a Martian milestone in 3-D
• See the Martian arctic in 3-D
• See more depths of Mars in 3-D
• 3-D delights from Mars
• Still more from Mars in 3-D
• Go on a space mission in 3-D
• See the moon's marvels in 3-D
• Saturn's moons in 3-D
• More from outer space in 3-D
• Fly through a nebula in 3-D
• Cosmic Log's 3-D-O-Rama

Join the Cosmic Log community by clicking the "like" button on our Facebook page or by following msnbc.com science editor Alan Boyle as b0yle on Twitter. To learn more about Alan Boyle's book on Pluto and the search for planets, check out the website for "The Case for Pluto."