Rounded Buttes in Hypanis Valles in Xanthe Terra
HiRISE PICTURE OF THE DAY: 2 JANUARY 2026

Rounded Buttes in Hypanis Valles

This is a follow up image to examine these rounded buttes and discern between eroded crater rims and distal deltaic sediments. This could give insight into stages of crater rim erosion, and the possibility that a larger rim made up of these buttes enclosed the Hypanis delta, separating it from a possible global ocean.



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

Ejecta Moving into Crater in Chryse Planitia
The objective of this observation is to examine what appears to be ejecta moving into a small crater. More resolution is needed to tell exactly what is going on here. This scene is also visible in Context Camera data. Chryse Planitia is a region where the Viking 1 lander and Mars Pathfinder touched down.