Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
The Tharsis Region of Mars is Peppered With These Strange Pit Craters. Now They’ve Been Found Elsewhere
Pit craters are found on solid bodies throughout our Solar System, including Earth, Venus, the Moon, and Mars. These craters…
A New Map of Mars, Made From 51,000 Orbital Images
When NASA sent the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to the red planet in 2006, the spacecraft took an instrument with…
This Bizarre Terrain on Mars is Caused by Water Ice and Carbon Dioxide
From orbit, this landscape on Mars looks like a lacy honeycomb or a spider web. But the unusual polygon-shaped features…
This Crater on Mars is Just a Couple of Years Old
Changes are always taking place on Mars, from factors like seasonal variations and wind. But there’s one other aspect that…
Eight Missions are Getting Extensions, Most Exciting: OSIRIS-REx is Going to Asteroid Apophis
NASA has granted mission extensions to eight different planetary missions, citing the continued excellent operations of the spacecraft, but more…
Here’s Something Rare: a Martian Crater That isn’t a Circle. What Happened?
Most impact craters are usually circular and fairly symmetric, but not all. This odd-shaped crater on Mars is obviously an…
Perseverance Finally Spots its Own Parachute on the Surface of Mars
More than 13 months after the Perseverance rover landed on Mars (on February 18, 2021), the rover’s cameras have finally…
What a Feat! Ingenuity Photographed From Space
It seems like only months ago that the Perseverance Rover landed in Jezero Crater on Mars. But in fact, it's…
Mars Orbiter Captures Images of China’s Rover From Space
China’s Tianwen-1 lander and Zhurong rover touched down on the Martian plain Utopia Planitia on May 14, 2021 after spending…
It’s Springtime on Mars, and the Dunes are Defrosting
Nothing says springtime on Mars like defrosting dunes. (more…)