March 10, 2023
On this date in 2006, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) arrived at Mars, successfully completing its orbit insertion. The MRO continues to send back data on the planet’s atmosphere, surface, and subsurface. The focus of this mission is to better understand the history of water on the Red Planet. Scientists have recently used MRO data to propose that water existed on Mars as recently as 2 billion years ago – rather than 3 billion years ago, as has been previously believed.
To read more about this discovery, visit: https://mars.nasa.gov/news/9119/nasas-mro-finds-water-flowed-on-mars-longer-than-previously-thought/
The MRO captured this image of Bosporos Planum, a plateau on Mars. The white spots are salt deposits found in a dry channel bed. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS