Mars Opportunity
This NASA image released 24 February, 2004 shows NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity casting a shadow over the El Capitan area that the rover is examining with tools on its robotic arm. Opportunity used its rock abrasion tool to grind a small hole into Opportunity Ledge to prepare for using the other tools on its arm to analyze the freshly exposed rock. Getty Images/NASA/JPL/AFP

NASA has finally pulled the plug on the Mars Opportunity Rover, which lost contact with the space agency eight months ago.

The Opportunity spacecraft landed on Mars back in 2004, but after over 14 years of exploring the Red Planet, the $400 million solar-powered rover suddenly went silent following a massive dust storm. At the time, dust enveloped Mars and prevented sunlight from reaching its surface. NASA received the last signal from Opportunity on June 10, 2018.

On Tuesday, NASA tried one last time to communicate with the Opportunity rover, but the space agency did not receive any signals in response. Following their final attempt, NASA finally gave up on the rover and announced that its mission is over.

"For more than a decade, Opportunity has been an icon in the field of planetary exploration, teaching us about Mars' ancient past as a wet, potentially habitable planet, and revealing uncharted Martian landscapes," Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in a press release. "Whatever loss we feel now must be tempered with the knowledge that the legacy of Opportunity continues – both on the surface of Mars with the Curiosity rover and InSight lander – and in the clean rooms of JPL, where the upcoming Mars 2020 rover is taking shape."

The Opportunity rover was sighted by the HiRISE high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter three months after it went silent. An image of the rover taken Sept. 20 by the camera showed that it was in Mars' Perseverance Valley. However, it seemed to have lost its capacity to communicate with NASA.

After declaring Opportunity's mission complete, NASA brought back some of the best images taken by the rover since it landed on Mars' surface on Jan. 24, 2004.

One image NASA shared on Twitter and its website showed a dust devil twisting through the Marathon Valley, as well as the lander's tracks as it made its way up the Knudsen Ridge.

Another photo shared on NASA’s website showed a false-color panorama of the Pilinger Point in the Endeavour Crater. The space agency also shared an image of the Mars surface taken by the Opportunity on its 2,407th day on Martian soil.

See other images captured by the Mars rover during its 14 years of exploration here.

Mars
This expansive view of the martian real estate surrounding the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is the first 360 degree, high-resolution color image taken by the rover's panoramic camera February 2, 2004. The airbag marks, or footprints, seen in the soil trace the route by which Opportunity rolled to its final resting spot inside a small crater at Meridiani Planum, Mars. The exposed rock outcropping is a future target for further examination. This image mosaic consists of 225 individual frames. Getty Images/NASA/JPL/Cornell

Aside from its incredible images of Mars' surface, the Opportunity also made several significant discoveries about the Red Planet, including evidence that a primitive Mars had water flowing on its surface and may have been capable of hosting microbial life. ​

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