Exploring Mars

Probe returns first Mars pictures

BBC, Saturday, 25 March 2006

Scientists are studying the first pictures taken of the surface of the Red Planet by a high-resolution camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The spacecraft arrived at the planet two weeks ago with a mission to map the world in unprecedented detail.

The test images released by the US space agency (Nasa) on Friday show a 50km swathe of land in the planet's mid-latitude southern highlands.

The probe is currently correcting its orbit and commissioning instruments.

Three cameras were used to take the crisp black and white images.

Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said the smallest objects that can be made out are about 7.6 m across, but that once the obiter descends to a lower mapping orbit the camera will be able to pick out objects just under one metre across.

Over a period of months the craft's orbit will dip lower and lower until it asiado en responder dos preguntas y me exprese lo mejor que pude, pero en la ultima parte no pude ordenar muy bien las ideas que quería decir debido a eso, pero para la otra tratare de ser mucho mas rápido al responder mis preguntas, pero en si esta actividad se me hizo muy buena y además muy interesante maestra.

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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

First image from newly arrived camera.

Detail of first image from newly arrived camera

NASA‘s Mars Exploration Program