Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter sends home photos from the Red Planet

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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter sends home photos from the Red Planet

See dust storms, craters and avalanches in action on the Red Planet

Published: August 14, 2020 14:30 Gulf News Report

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20200720 hope probe — Every two years, the planets are positioned such that the travel time from Earth to Mars is at its shortest. 2020 was just such a year and it saw space missions including UAE’s Hope Probe take off to the Red Planet. But there is a predecessor to the Hope Probe. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter left 15 years ago, and now is providing photos and cues to what’s on the mysterious planet. Here’s a look at a few of the images the orbiter's top-of-the-class cameras threw up. Image Credit: Reuters

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MARS — Dust storms are routine on Mars. Most are limited to small regions and are not as dramatic as what's portrayed in movies. But once or twice a decade, a series of regional storms will create a domino effect, lifting enough dust for winds to cover the surface in what's called a "planet-encircling dust event." This one, captured by Mars Color Imager (MARCI) in the summer of 2018, darkened the region above the Opportunity rover, depriving its solar panels of sunlight and ultimately leading to the end of the mission. Image Credit: NASA

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Earth to Mars — As the camera High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) pans over large swaths of Mars' surface, it occasionally discovers surprises like this towering dust devil, which was captured from 185 miles (297 kilometers) above the ground. The length of this whirlwind's shadow indicates that it was more than half a mile (800 meters) high – about the size of the United Arab Emirate's Burj Khalifa, the tallest building on Earth. Image Credit: NASA

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