Watching over the red planet.
Watching over the red planet.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Is Like Google Earth But For Mars

What a little showoff.

By The Numbers

The Mars reconnaissance orbiter has been hard at work for over a decade now, sending back incredibly detailed images of the red planet for your viewing pleasure. It has never once taken a vacation or a sick day, making it a better employee than you could ever hope to be. Everybody loves it.
Phobos just wants to get closer to you.

Phobos (Mars I)

Phobos is the innermost and larger moon of Mars. Phobos has been steadily getting closer to Mars, and will eventually crash into it or break up into a nifty planetary ring. Phobos orbits around Mars faster than Mars orbits on its axis, so it gets around the planet in about 7 and a half hours.
Beginning of Google maps for Mars

Curiosity Rover

The reconnaissance orbiter has snapped pictures of the various rovers hard at work on the planet's surface. This way it can make sure the curiosity rover doesn't dawdle or slack off.
Establish a base, build a cellar, then get to it. Twister's comin'!

Serpent Dust Devil

The dust devils on Mars make the dust devils on Earth look like amateurs. Martian dust devils are 50 times wider and 10 times taller than the ones on Earth, making them a real menace to mission equipment and reading outdoors. Dust devils have also proven helpful to missions, clearing dust off of solar panels. Mars is very dusty, leading experts to believe Martian dust devils are distant relatives of our Dirt Devils.

Carbon Frost

These strange tree looking things sticking up from the dunes are actually the result of subliming carbon dioxide dust. (Sublimation is when a solid turns into a gas, never being liquid).

Fresh Crater

This crater is a close up image taken by the reconnaissance orbiter. The actual crater is fairly small all things considered, being less than a kilometer wide.
Opportunity better watch itself.

Rover Tracks

The opportunity rover's tracks can be seen from the reconnaissance orbiter. Clearly, it's been going in circles. Opportunity clearly isn't the brightest rover of the bunch.