Name: One of NASA’s Key Cameras Orbiting Mars Takes 100,000th Image - NASA
Uploaded: 2025-12-16T11:00:00-05:00
Description: Mesas and dunes stand out in the view snapped by HiRISE, one of the imagers aboard the agency’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

An overhead color view of the Martian surface shows rough and varied terrain in shades ranging from golden tan to electric blue. At upper left, the ground appears more flat and cratered than other areas of the image, and is colored dark grayish-blue with highlights of silver and tan. The upper right corner of the image looks like wavy sand dunes, in shades of dark blue with bright silvery highlights, except for one apparent ridgeline that stands out as an elongated S-shape in electric blue. The bottom half of the image shows more mountainous terrain that gets lighter and more gold-colored nearer the bottom of the frame. A pair of smooth valleys run diagonally between the peaks, from around the center of the image toward the bottom-left corner; the upper one is a shade of silvery blue and the bottom one is a grayish-gold, and both have ridges lining their upper walls, looking like lines of sharp teeth biting into the valleys.

This view of a region called Syrtis Major is from the 100,000th image captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter using its HiRISE camera. Over nearly 20 years, HiRISE has helped scientists understand how the Red Planet’s surface is constantly changing.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Mesas and dunes stand out in the view snapped by HiRISE, one of the imagers aboard the agency’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

After nearly 20 years at the Red Planet, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has snapped its 100,000th image of the surface with its HiRISE camera. Short for High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, HiRISE is the instrument the mission relies on for high-resolution images of features ranging from impact craters, sand dunes, and ice deposits to potential landing sites. Those images, in turn, help improve our understanding of Mars and prepare for NASA’s future human missions there.

Captured Oct. 7, this milestone image from the spacecraft shows mesas and dunes within Syrtis Major, a region about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Jezero Crater, which NASA’s Perseverance rover is exploring. Scientists are analyzing the image to better understand the source of windblown sand that gets trapped in the region’s landscape, eventually forming dunes.

“HiRISE hasn’t just discovered how different the Martian surface is from Earth, it’s also shown us how that surface changes over time,” said MRO’s project scientist, Leslie Tamppari of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “We’ve seen dune fields marching along with the wind and avalanches careening down steep slopes.”

Watch highlights of images captured by HiRISE, the high-resolution camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, including its 100,000th image, showing the plains and dunes of Syrtis Major.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

The subject of the 100,000th image was recommended by a high school student through the HiWish site, where anyone can suggest parts of the planet to study. Team members at University of Arizona in Tucson, which operates the camera, also make 3D models of HiRISE imagery so that viewers can experience virtual flyover videos.

“Rapid data releases, as well as imaging targets suggested by the broader science community and public, have been a hallmark of HiRISE,” said the camera’s principal investigator, Shane Byrne of the University of Arizona in Tucson. “One hundred thousand images just like this one have made Mars more familiar and accessible for everyone.”

More about MRO

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.

For more information, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-reconnaissance-orbiter

News Media Contacts

Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov

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