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Opposition surge at Mars

Opposition surge at Mars
Opposition surge at Mars Finally, the opposition surge is visible in the centre of the above distorted image of Mars, composed of two wide-angle images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) aboard the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) in 1998. These images were taken just before MGS began its first aero-braking phase of the mission. Once the spacecraft entered its science orbit, MOC continued to observe the opposition effect in many of its wide-angle images, just closer to the surface. This effect is also visible in images captured by the Mars Colour Imager (MARCI) aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) due to the unique lighting geometry required and supplied by the similar orbits used for the science phases of both spacecraft. NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS