The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has shared a beautiful picture of the planet Mars that shows big craters on the shining planet. Apparently, the image has been taken by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) that is on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
NASA, alongside the picture, wrote on Instagram, “The Martian crater marks the spot X. You’re looking at 0° longitude on Mars—the Greenwich Observatory equivalent on the Red Planet. The Greenwich Observatory marks Earth’s Prime Meridian, which is a north-south line that defines where east meets west and is used as the zero-reference line for astronomical observations.”
It further wrote, “The larger crater that sits within this crater, called the Airy Crater, originally defined zero longitude for Mars, but as higher resolution photos became available, a smaller feature was needed. This crater, called Airy-0 (zero) was selected because it did not need to adjust existing maps.”
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The agency concluded the post with “this image was captured by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel.”
With space science advancing at such a rapid pace, would we be able to find out new avenues of life on other planets anytime soon?