Photos: Mars Orbiter snaps first high-res image

The first image taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is a mosaic containing 10 side-by-side exposures taken through red filters at greatly reduced scale. The full product would be 20,000 pixels wide by 9,500 pixels high. The image covers an area of approximately 30.7 miles by 11.7 miles and was taken from 1,547 miles--approximately the same distance from New York to Dallas.

The white box shows the position of the sample image (next) in full resolution which gives a hint of what the camera can do.