Dune Monitoring in Crater
HiRISE PICTURE OF THE DAY: 1 OCTOBER 2026

Offworld Cool

The rationale for this observation is simple: to look for seasonal changes and frost monitoring. This stunning dune field, almost 5 km (3 mi) across in the grayscale cutout, is located at the bottom of an unnamed impact crater. The dark spots are the result of sublimation, that exposes the darker subsurface when a solid transforms directly into a gaseous state and disturbs the topside.



100,000 Image of Mars!
On 7 October 2025, the HiRISE camera aboard MRO acquired an image of the Syrtis Major plains that marks over 100,000 images of Mars, which is a fabulous milestone!
HiRISE Image of Exocomet 3I/ATLAS
On 2 October 2025, MRO turned away from Mars to image 3I/ATLAS, only the third interstellar object ever observed passing through our solar system!

HiRISE Instrument News
HiRISE Instrument News
Since mid-2023, our RED4 CCD has operated only intermittently due to a hardware issue, creating gaps in the middle of some image products and reducing the color swath to 1 CCD width. We continue to command RED4 in all observations and it returns data approximately 50% of the time

Layers in Claritas Fossae
The objective of this observation is to determine the nature of a group of exposed layers. They seem to be from material sitting at the bottom of a trough instead of in the trough walls. Located between the lava plains of Daedalia Planum and Solis Planum, Claritas Fossae is a graben-filled highland and was formed prior to the large lava flows of the Tharsis region.