The European Space Agency’s new Mars orbiter just sent back its first high-resolution images of the Red Planet, and the view is amazing.
The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) arrived at Mars on Oct. 19, when its companion spacecraft Schiaparelli crash-landed on the planet’s surface. Since then, TGO has been circling Mars, testing out its machinery, and taking spectacularly sharp pictures of the landscape using its Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS). ESA stitched together the best of these photos in a cool new flyover video.
“The first images we received are absolutely spectacular ― and it was only meant to be a test,” Nicolas Thomas, CaSSIS team leader at the University of Bern’s Center of Space and Habitability, said in a statement.
These first images allowed ESA to test the camera’s color- and stereo-imaging capabilities, which would allow CaSSIS to build 3D maps of the Martian surface using measurements with sound waves.
Though the color-imaging equipment was functioning as planned, the first photos appear black and white. That’s because the areas photographed are dusty ― volcanic without much color to be seen. “We will have to wait a little until something colorful passes under the spacecraft,” Thomas said.

source: space.com