China has completed a global survey of Mars and showed a number of amazing photos
Miscellaneous / / June 29, 2022
They have a giant canyon system, a crater on top of an extinct volcano, and the south pole, where there may be a huge subglacial lake.
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the main contractor of the National Space Administration (CNSA), announced on the success of the Tianwen-1 mission. Within its framework, the orbiter was engaged in shooting and visualizing the surface of Mars.
The device collected 1040 GB of raw photos in more than 1344 orbits. All this data, according to China, will eventually become publicly available to scientists around the world.
First of all, this concerns a lot of stunning high-resolution shots showing the most diverse corners of the Red Planet. Several of these pictures have already been published.
One of them captures the giant canyon system of the Mariner Valley, which stretches for more than 4,000 kilometers and reaches a depth of up to 7 kilometers. It's unclear how this huge, scar-like canyon formed, but experts suspect it formed as a rift billions of years ago as the planet cooled.
There are also images of the south pole of Mars. This is a particularly intriguing part of the planet, as there may be a huge subglacial lake with salt water. It is considered one of the most important objects for proving the existence of life on the planet.
Tianwen-1 is an automatic interplanetary station that was launched in July 2020. It consists of an orbiter that studies the geology of Mars, and a descent module, the payload of which is a six-wheeled rover.zhurong».
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