Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)

A New Map Shows Where Mars is Hiding all its Ice

Water will be one of the most important resources for human explorers on Mars. They'll need it for drinking, propellant,…

5 months ago

Navigate a Global Image of Mars (If Your Computer Can Handle It)

Using data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), planetary scientists have created one of the most unique and detailed maps…

11 months ago

Fly Around Jezero Crater on Mars in This New Video

There’s a reason Jezero Crater was chosen as the landing site for the Perseverance Rover: it is considered one of…

12 months ago

There's a Crater on Mars That Looks Like a Bear

Facial pareidolia is the human tendency or illusion of seeing facial structures in an everyday objects – such as seeing…

1 year ago

Many Clouds on Mars are Driven by Dust, not Water

One of the benefits of having a cluster of satellites orbiting another planet is that scientists can then analyze that…

1 year ago

Beautiful Dunes on Mars, Sculpted by Swirling Winds

This interesting image from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a field of fascinating dunes called barchan…

2 years ago

This Ice Cliff is One of the Few Places With Exposed Water ice in the Mid-Latitudes on Mars. It’s Probably Tens of Millions of Years old

Because of the orbiters and landers that have studied Mars over the years, scientists have learned that water ice is…

2 years ago

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…

2 years ago

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…

2 years ago

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…

2 years ago