![]() This image shows Mars' north pole as captured by the Tiawen-1 probe. The probe entered its preset parking orbit above Mars on February 24 and will stay in this orbit for about three months before deploying its landing capsule. At the time of the announcement, Tianwen-1 was roughly 131,730,000 miles (212M km) from Earth. Tianwen-1 weighs five metric tons and comprises a pair of primary parts, the orbiter itself and a landing capsule. The mission marks the beginning of the Asian nation's planetary exploration program. The probe, which carries 13 scientific instruments in total, launched on a Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket on July 23 from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in China's Hainan province. Tianwen-1 is China's first independent Mars mission. The color picture was generated by another camera on the orbiter, showing Mars' north pole.' Craters, mountain ridges and sand dunes on the red planet are clear on the pictures. In its English press statement, CNSA writes, 'The two black-and-white 7-meter-resolution images were taken by the high-definition camera on Tianwen 1's orbiter when the probe was about 330 to 350 kilometers above the Martian surface. Shortly after Perseverance landed, NASA shared a 360° photo from Mars.Īn image captured by Tianwen-1 at an altitude of about 220 mi (350km) above Mars. Last month, when NASA's Perseverance rover landed on the red planet we got a glimpse at images shot with impressive new tech. They're the first high-definition images from the Tianwen-1 mission.īetween CNSA and NASA, we have been spoiled with amazing Mars imagery lately. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) released three images earlier this month, two in black and white and one in color. This suggest that the outer edge of the zone of the polygons and flows may outline the deeper portions of the large body (∼2000 km across) of water/ice that likely existed in the center of Utopia Planitia in late Hesperian.China's Tianwen-1 probe has spent nearly a month orbiting Mars, and now we have stunning images from the voyage. The outer (southern) edge of the zone of polygonal troughs and etched flows approximately corresponds to the transition from pancake-like ejecta to rampart ejecta. (7) Etched flows are spatially associated with giant polygons and there is evidence that these features populated the center portion of Utopia Planitia before it was covered by the Elysium-derived units. Their morphology and pattern of degradation, however, are inconsistent with lava and, instead, indicate formation of the flows due to mud volcanism. (6) Etched flows around the central portion of Utopia Planitia were erupted from beneath of the surface of the VB. This pattern of the crater spatial distribution suggests that materials within the center of Utopia Planitia contained more ice/water. Craters with pancake-like ejecta are concentrated within the central portion of the Utopia basin (less than ∼1000 km from the basin center) and rampart craters occur at the periphery of the basin. (5) The diameter ranges of the craters with either rampart- or pancake-like ejecta are overlapping (from ∼2 to ∼60 km). This suggests that these craters formed in targets that contained higher abundances of volatiles. The distal portions of the pancake-like ejecta are heavily degraded (not due to embayment). (4) The majority of the larger (i.e., >1 km) impact craters show ejecta morphologies (rampart and pancake-like ejecta) that are indicative of the presence of ice/water in the target materials. The absolute model ages of etched flows, which represent the upper stratigraphic limit of the VB, are estimated to be ∼3.5 Ga. ![]() (3) The SFD of craters that superpose the surface of the VB indicates an absolute model age of ∼3.6-3.5 Ga. (2) Lack of craters that are partly embayed by materials of the VB in the SW portion of Utopia Planitia implies that the emplacement of the VB was faster than the rate of accumulation of impact craters and is consistent with the geologically short time of emplacement of the VB due to catastrophic release of water from outflow channels (e.g., Carr, M.H. (1) The size-frequency distribution (SFD) of craters that both are buried by materials of the Vastitas Borealis units (VB) and superpose its surface indicate that the absolute model ages of terrain predating the emplacement of the VB is ∼3.7 Ga. Results of our detailed geological mapping and interpretation of the nature and relative and absolute model ages of units and structures in the SW portion of Utopia Planitia (20-45°N, 100-120☎) suggest the following. ![]()
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