The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) recently celebrated its 15th anniversary, leaving Earth to observe the red planet, and NASA is celebrating by recreating some of the robot’s best images. You’ve probably seen some of them in recent years, but perhaps it has never stopped to appreciate how much this mission has contributed to our understanding of Mars. Well, here’s a chance to wake it all up.
The MRO launched in 2005 aboard an Atlas V rocket, and reached Mars several months later. NASA designed the probe to last about five years, but here we are significantly past, and the MRO is still strong. Most of the images we have seen of the MRO come from the camera of the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), which reflects a 0.5-meter (1 ft 8 in) telescope is. That’s the largest ever carried in deep space, and it shows. The images returned by the MRO of Mars are shockingly clear, thanks in part to the planet’s thin atmosphere.
This mission regularly reminds us that Mars has a surprisingly dynamic surface for an uninhabited planet with no noticeable geological activity. For example, in 2012, the probe realized the great dust devil below. Judging by its shadow, NASA says the twister was half a mile high.
A year later in 2013, the MRO captured a function on the red planet: a crater (below). Yes, Mars has a lot of those, but this was new. Between 2010 and 2012, an object struck the surface, leaving a 30-foot (30-meter) pockmark. NASA says the impact ejecta throws up to 15.3 miles (15 kilometers).
The MRO also pays attention to what is going on in space around Mars. In 2008, the probe swung along the Martian moon Phobos, taking the clearest images of the small moon ever. The origin of Phobos is unclear, but scientists believe it is either a captured asteroid or a piece of Mars blown into orbit by an ancient influence.
More recently in 2019, the MRO released images of the planet’s polar region. That puff in the upper left corner of the image below is an avalanche happening in front of your eyes on another planet. NASA says that thawing of seasonal ice destabilized a cliff and ignited the rock.
NASA has many more images of MRO for you to enjoy. You can even propose new observation targets for the mission through the University of Arizona.
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