After 11 Years, Martian Rover Completes a Full Marathon

(Image: NASA)

Clocking in at 11 years and 2 months, it's a truly awful marathon time. But it's the first marathon ever completed on the surface of another world. On Tuesday, NASA's Opportunity rover crossed the 26.219 mile mark during its sojourn across the red planet.

The previous record was held by the Soviet Union's lunar rover Lunokhod 2, which traveled 23 miles in 1973. 

Opportunity landed on Mars on January 25, 2004. It's spent the past 4 years crossing the 14-mile wide Endeavour crater. NASA planned to use it for at least 3 months. Despite breakdowns, Opportunity continues to explore Mars and relay data back to Earth.

-via Jeff Zentner