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Four views of the Phoenix lander from HiRISE

Four views of the Phoenix lander from HiRISE
Four views of the Phoenix lander from HiRISE From the day of its landing to August 22, 2009, the HiRISE camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter obtained photos of the Phoenix lander on Mars. There was a long hiatus in imaging during the Martian winter, when there was not sufficient light for HiRISE to see by. It obtained two photos of Phoenix in the slanting light of northern spring before going into safe mode on August 26, 2009. The difference between the views from 2008 and 2009 may reflect some differences at the landing site (the presence of frost, for instance) but has at least as much to do with the extremely oblique lighting in the 2009 images. NASA / JPL-Caltech / UA / animation by Emily Lakdawalla