Download NASA’s New Series of Awesome Images of Mars for Free
It’s been 15 years since NASA launched its Mars Orbiter (MRO) and it continues to provide us with spectacular images of the Red Planet. To celebrate this anniversary, NASA has released a new series of MRO images , including some of the most detailed imagery we’ve ever seen. Here’s what we can not only see but also download for free.
How were they taken?
According to NASA, the main mission of MRO is to study the temperature in the atmosphere of Mars, look underground with radar and detect minerals on the planet’s surface. While photography is not a part of it, the spacecraft is probably best known for the incredible images it takes, which have largely shaped our current knowledge of what Mars looks like.
If you’re wondering what kind of cameras you need to take such images, here’s what’s on board the MRO, according to NASA :
The Mars Color Imager (MARCI) features a fisheye lens that provides a daily global view. The Contextual Camera (CTX) provides black-and-white images of the area 19 miles (30 kilometers) wide. These images, in turn, offer context for the sharply focused images provided by the third MRO camera, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), which produces the most striking views.
While all cameras are important, HiRISE was a kind of MVP MRO, capturing everything from falling avalanches and dusty clouds in the sky to other NASA spacecraft on Mars like the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers. As of early August 2020, HiRISE alone has captured 6,882,204 images.
Why are some of the images blue?
First, a few words about image colors; in particular why some are predominantly blue rather than the planet’s trademark reddish hue. False color has been added to these images to highlight details such as dune tops and ripples to show how different aspects of the Mars landscape change over time (similar to what happens on Earth, but without human influences).
“The more we look, the more we discover,” said Leslie Tamppari, deputy research scientist for MRO at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Before the MRO, it was not clear what really changed on Mars. We thought the atmosphere was so thin that there was almost no sand movement, and most of the dune movement took place in the ancient past. “
How to view and download images
A new batch of images can be found by going to this page on the NASA website . This will bring up what looks like a blog post with images and then their descriptions. To get a closer look at any image or download it, click on the image itself. Then you will have the option to download it in JPG or TIF format or as wallpaper.