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Named after the “quest for heavenly truth”, Tianwen 1, China’s first Mars probe, has given us impressive pictures of the red planet. The first high-resolution(高分辨率的) pictures of Mars taken by Tianwen 1 were made public by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) ON March 4.

“These are the first close-up pictures of Mars’ surface taken by China,”said Bao Weimin, a scientist of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The probes shot high-definition pictures while traveling in Mars’s orbit, CNSA said. Craters, mountain ridges and sand dunes can clearly be seen. CNSA estimated that the largest crater in the picture could be about 620 meters in diameter.

The pictures were taken at different distances from Mars. The two black-and-white pictures were taken by the high-resolution camera on Tianwen 1 when the probe was about 330—350 kilometers above the Martian surface. As for the color picture, it was taken by Tianwen 1’s medium-resolution camera when the probe was about 5,000 kilometers above the red planet. It shows Mars’ North Pole.

“It is the shooting modes that determine if the pictures are black-and-white or colored,” said Liu Tongjie, deputy director of the lunar Exploration and Space Engineering of CNSA.

The high-resolution camera can take both color and panchromatic(全色的) pictures. Panchromatic pictures, which are black and white, are the clearest, containing the largest amount of data for scientific study, said Liu. The medium-resolution camera, although featuring automatic exposure(自动曝光) and remote control, can only produce lesser clear pictures. Scientists put the panchromatic and color pictures together to form a clear and beautiful color picture, Liu added.

Tianwen 1, the country’s first independent Mars mission, was launched on July 23, kicking off the nation’s planetary exploration program. The probe entered its preset parking orbit above Mars on Feb. 24 and is looking for a landing site on the planet’s largest plain, known as Utopia Planitia. The probe is expected to land on the red planet sometime between May and June.