China’s national space agency on Sunday released beautiful high-resolution images of Mars captured by its Tianwen-1 probe, which is currently orbiting the Red Planet. Launched on July 23 last year, Tianwen-1 covered a distance of 475 million km over a period of 224 days.
China’s Tianwen – 1 probe, including a orbit, a lander and a rover, successfully entered the Mars orbit on February 24 after a nearly seven-month journey from Earth.
On March 4, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) released a new set of images of the surface of Mars, including two panchromatic views and one color photograph captured by the probe.
Mars forms such as small craters, mountain reefs and dunes are clearly visible in the images. It is estimated that the diameter of the largest impact crater on the images is about 620 meters, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency the CNSA quoted, according to a PTI report.
Here are the images
“The two black-and-white 7-meter resolutions were taken by the high-definition camera on the orbit of Tianwen 1 when the probe was about 330 to 350 kilometers above the surface of Mars,” the CNSA said in a statement. official website said.
Black-and-white photo of Mars taken by the Chinese Tianwen-1 probe (Photo: Courtesy: China National Space Administration)
“Craters, mountain reefs and sand dunes on the red planet are clearly on the photos,” the CNSA added.
Black-and-white photo of Mars taken by the Chinese Tianwen-1 probe (Photo: Courtesy: China National Space Administration)
“The color photo was generated by another camera on the orbit, showing the North Pole of Mars,” China’s national space agency said.
Color photo of Mars taken by the Chinese Tianwen-1 probe (Photo: Courtesy: China National Space Administration)
China’s Tianwen-1 probe
China launched Tianwen-1 on 23 July 2020 and will enter the orbit around Mars on 24 February this year. Currently, according to CNSA, it is about 212 million km from Earth.
The lander carrying the rover is expected to land on Mars in May or June this year.
Chinese space engineers and scientists have selected a relatively flat region in the southern part of Utopia Planitia, a large plain, as a potential landing zone.
The state-run Xinhua news agency released the rover after it landed to conduct scientific reconnaissance.