Ingenuity: NASA's singular Martian chopper
A dazzling representation taken by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter shows an unprecedented presumption of a 12-mile-high volcano poking done clouds astatine dawn connected the Red Planet.
Arsia Mons, which dwarfs Earth's tallest volcanoes, and its 2 neighboring volcanoes are often surrounded by h2o crystal clouds, particularly successful the aboriginal morning. The representation released Friday marks the archetypal clip 1 of the volcanoes has been imaged connected the planet's horizon, NASA said.
Odyssey has antecedently captured high-altitude images of the Martian horizon, and to bash so, it rotates 90 degrees portion successful orbit truthful that its camera tin instrumentality the picture, NASA said. The spacecraft typically focuses connected the precocious ambiance but besides studies aboveground features.
The latest image, captured connected May 2, focuses connected Arsia Mons, which is astir doubly arsenic gangly arsenic Earth's largest volcano, Hawaii's Mauna Loa, which rises 6 miles supra the seafloor.
The 2001 Odyssey spacecraft captured a first-of-its-kind look astatine Arsia Mons, which dwarfs Earth's tallest volcanoes.
NASA
Arsia Mons is the cloudiest of the 3 volcanoes successful the country -- collectively called the Tharsis Mountains -- and the clouds are particularly heavy erstwhile the Red Planet is farthest from the sun, a play called aphelion.
The caller snapshot intelligibly shows the unreality canopy crossed the Red Planet's equator.
"We picked Arsia Mons hoping we would spot the acme poke supra the aboriginal greeting clouds. And it didn't disappoint," said Jonathon Hill, the operations pb for Odyssey's camera, called the Thermal Emission Imaging System, oregon THEMIS.
The space of the camera allows scientists to spot particulate and h2o crystal unreality layers, enabling them to observe changes implicit the people of seasons.
"We're seeing immoderate truly important seasonal differences successful these skyline images," said planetary idiosyncratic Michael D. Smith of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "It's giving america caller clues to however Mars' ambiance evolves implicit time."
Launched successful 2001, Odyssey has the favoritism of being the longest-running spacecraft orbiting different planet.
NASA's Perseverance rover, which landed connected Mars successful 2021, is collecting samples for an eventual return to Earth from Jezero Crater, an past lakebed and stream delta that could clasp clues to immoderate past microbial life. Last month, Perseverance took a selfie that captured an image of a particulate devil popping up astir 3 miles down the rover.
Stephen Smith is simply a managing exertion for CBSNews.com based successful New York. A Washington, D.C. native, Steve was antecedently an editorial shaper for the Washington Post, and has besides worked successful Los Angeles, Boston and Tokyo.
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