China's first Mars probe(火星探测器) Tianwen-1, which arrived in the Martian parking orbit(火星轨道) on February 26 and is currently orbiting the planet (绕火星运行) , has sent back a group of new high definition images(高清图像) of the Earth's planetary neighbor.
China National Space Administration (CNSA) shared the images with the Global Times on Thursday. The amazing pictures of the Red Planet by Tianwen-1 include two panchromatic (全色 ) imago and one color image, CNSA said in a statement it provided to the Global Times.
Those panchromatic images, which appear to be black and white, were taken by the Chinese craft's high-definition (高分辨率) camera as it flew somewhere between 330-350 kilometers above the Mars surface. From these images with a resolution (分辨率) of around 0.7 meters, the crater(陨石坑) , ridges (山脊) and dunes
(沙丘) of the planet can clearly be seen. CNSA estimated (估计) that the largest crater in the image could be some 620 meters in diameter (直径).
The color image is taken by the color camera of Tianwen-1, and is a capture of the north polar region (北极区域) of the Mars.
CPPCC member (政协委员) and CASC official Bao Weimin said Thursday that China's first Mars mission—Tianwen-1——will land on the Red Planet sometime between May-June this year.
The currently-orbiting probe is investigating (寻找) the potential landing site(潜在着陆点) on the largest plain of the Red Planet, known as Utopia Planitia, Bao said.
