China's Mars orbiter has captured a series of alien images of our neighboring planet.
The shots were taken by a small camera. On New Year's Day, they released a picture of Tianwen 1, looking lonely above the red planet and Mars' frozen northern ice cap.
The shots look like they're straight out of a sci-fi film, and yet strangely similar to home at the same time.
There are ice caps on Mars. TheCNSA/PEC.
The administration said in a statement that the orbiter is now over 200 million miles away from Earth.
The image release includes a close-up of the golden body, science antenna, and solar array of the device that powers it.
The solar array and body of Tianwen 1. TheCNSA/PEC.
The images came as a total surprise to many in the science community.
Wow! This is a surprise from the mission. The images were returned by a small sub satellite that was released by the orbiter.
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January 1, 2022.
The red planet and the orbiter can be photographed with this camera, which is unique to Tianwen 1.
Here's what it looks like when a camera is thrown up to take a selfies.
The camera fell into deep space.
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January 1, 2022.
A mosaic image taken by the Zhurong rover on the surface of Mars shows a barren landscape.
The images were taken by the rover. TheCNSA/PEC.
The first Chinese rover to land on Mars, the Zhurong, was the sixth globally.
"As of Saturday morning, the 1.85-meter-tall, 240-kilogram Zhurong had worked on Martian land for 224 days, far outliving its three-month life expectancy." The Chinese National Space Administration said in a statement that the rover traveled more than 1,400 meters.
We can't wait to see what happens.
