a new image to consider Mars planet,like never seen before“And with unprecedented colors, marks the 20th anniversary of the Mars Express mission European Space Agency (ESA) Orbiting the Red Planet. A test of resistance, since two years is already two decades.
ESA also offered First live broadcast with Mars Of history. An image every 50 seconds from the visual surveillance camera on the Martian orbiter, located more than three million kilometers from Earth, which brings together more than 33,000 Internet users on its YouTube channel.
New photo published this Friday A mosaic of images that reveal the planet’s color and composition “in spectacular detail”Created using data from HRSC cameras.
“Aside from its beauty, the mosaic provides fascinating information about the composition of Mars, revealing An unprecedented variety and breadth of colors on its surface“, highlights ESA.
Mars is famous for its red colour, which is caused by high levels of oxidized iron, but New image reveals large parts of planet that appear darker and bluer in colorBasaltic sand of volcanic origin, due to its brownish-black colour, which forms extensive layers of dark sand.
Water-repellent material becomes lighter And the two most common are clay and sulfate minerals, which appear especially brilliant in such colorful compounds.
The sulfate minerals are visible, albeit covered by a thin layer of dark sand, but “their impressive color variations can be appreciated,” explains ESA.
martian streaming
The celebration of 20 years of launch comes to an end First live broadcast of images taken by the orbiterConsidering that due to the distance It took 16 minutes 44 seconds to reach the earth from the ship.,
one hour of broadcast in which they could be seen Sequential snapshots of the southern hemisphere of MarsWhile that part of the planet crossed the computer screen from side to side and was explained by Jorge Hernandez and Simon Wood of the Mars Express team, who answered questions from followers.
As the images came in, Hernandez explained some of Mars’ features. With its white glow from the edge of the south pole, to various volcanic craters and even larger clouds, as the planet is currently in its cold, cloudy season, he said.
A pioneering transmission whose data, later converted into images, was captured by the deep space antenna installed in Cebreros (Avila)But due to bad weather in that area, there was some delay in the reception.
Camera used for Martian ‘streaming’ is one of the instruments on Mars Express’ mission Towards Mars was launched 20 years agoWhere they were to serve a Martian year (687 Earth days) to study its geology, climate and atmosphere.
Its name, Mars Express, is not accidental It was built and launched in record time and at a much lower cost than previous similar missionsBut two decades later “it has exceeded all expectations”, acknowledges the ESA, which expects it to continue in service until at least the end of 2026.
translation over two decades Traveled 1,100 million kilometers around Mars in over 24,000 orbitsDuring which they “revealed stunning images of the Martian surface and changing weather patterns, across diverse landscapes, from towering volcanoes to deep canyons and ancient riverbeds.”
different instruments that check Played a “key role” in detecting water ice hidden above and below the planet’s surface, and exposed water ice in the polar ice caps. Findings that have far-reaching implications.
The orbiter has also suffered problems over the years, which have been resolved by experts, from a mishap with the wiring of the solar panels, to massive memory problems that resulted in the loss of its long-term memory storage capacity.
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