Need a break from GOP insanity? Look to Mars!

Sometimes, local news (meaning stuff on Earth) gets depressing. You need to lift your eyes to the heavens to get better news... literally.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is a NASA probe that got to the Red Planet a few months ago. It began a series of maneuvers that put it into a lower orbit; the better to map Mars with. Astronomers and space fans have been waiting for the first high-res pictures from Mars - able to see objects much less than a meter across - and MRO started returning them this week. They've been spectacular, as you might expect from a camera that can see objects less than meter across on the surface.

But nothing prepared me for these.

This is Victoria crater, a divot in the planet about 700 meters across. This picture is pretty cool, showing how the edges of the crater have collapsed inward, giving it a scalloped look (very chic, too).

But if you look on the upper left of the crater, around 10 o'clock, you'll see a little grey lump. That, HuffPoers, is not any old martian lump. It's alien... to Mars.

It's the Opportunity rover. Here's a closeup.

Look at that picture! The robotic rover we sent to Mars three years ago is clearly visible, and you can see its tracks coming in from the upper left. The rover's camera sits on a mast a meter or so high, and you can even see the shadow of the mast to the lower right of the rover!

For years we've been seeing spectacular images from Mars, both from orbit and from the ground. But there is something far more viscerally satisfying with seeing the reach of human brains stretching so far.

It's easy to get bogged down in politics, especially lately. But remember: all politics is local. And sometimes "local" is local indeed.