Produced by: Tarun Mishra Designed by: Manoj Kumar
NASA’s Odyssey spacecraft, the longest-running mission at Mars, has completed its 100,000th orbit around the Red Planet, the mission team announced.
To mark the occasion, NASA released a detailed panorama of Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in the solar system, which Odyssey captured in March.
Credit : NASA
The volcano, located near Mars’ equator, spans 373 miles (600 kilometres) at its base and rises 17 miles (27 kilometres) into the planet’s atmosphere. Recent findings revealed ephemeral morning frost at its peak, providing new insights into Martian ice circulation.
Odyssey’s latest image of Olympus Mons shows a bluish-white band indicating dust levels in the Martian air, a purple tint suggesting a mix of dust and water-ice clouds, and a blue-green layer marking high-altitude water-ice clouds.
Scientists commanded Odyssey to rotate and point its camera toward the Martian horizon to capture the expansive view of Olympus Mons, similar to how astronauts view Earth from the International Space Station.
By capturing similar images at different times of the year, scientists aim to study changes in the Martian atmosphere across its four seasons, which last from four to seven months each.
Launched in April 2001, Odyssey was NASA’s first successful mission to Mars after the failures of the Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander. It has since revealed hidden water-ice reservoirs and mapped extensive areas of Mars’ surface.
Odyssey has travelled over 1.4 billion miles (2.2 billion kilometres) and is estimated to have enough propellant to continue its mission until the end of 2025. The mission team remains committed to gathering valuable scientific data in the years ahead.