MRO’s HiRISE Takes Its 100,000th Image of the Martian Surface
Figure A
Figure B
This view of the Martian landscape was captured on Oct. 7, 2025, by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter using its High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, camera. This image marked HiRISE’s 100,000th snapshot of the Red Planet.
The camera’s images are long strips because they’re captured as the spacecraft is moving quickly in orbit around the planet.
Figure A is a black-and-white crop from the main image.
Figure B is a color crop from the main image. HiRISE can image the center portion of each exposure it takes with two different color filters, providing a color view of details that can’t be seen in black and white.
Shown here are plains and sand dunes within Syrtis Major, a region about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Jezero Crater, which the agency’s Perseverance rover is currently exploring. Studying this landscape is helping scientists understand how sand is produced and trapped here, eventually forming dunes. The subject of the 100,000th image was chosen by a high school student through the HiWish site, where any member of the public can suggest parts of the planet to study with HiRISE.
Over the course of 20 years, HiRISE has revealed a planet that is constantly changing. The camera has captured such otherworldly terrain as spider-like shapes formed by gaseous eruptions, frosted sand dunes, and blast-ringed impact craters. The imager is also critical to preparations to eventually send astronauts to the Red Planet: HiRISE has identified safe landing sites and accessible water ice deposits that will help humans survive in the harsh Martian environment.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California manages MRO for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built MRO and supports its operations. The University of Arizona, in Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in Boulder, Colorado.
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