NASA probe sends sharp views of Mars

LOS ANGELES -- A high-resolution camera aboard NASA's latest spacecraft to reach Mars has sent back its first view of the Red Planet from orbit.

The crisp test image from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was taken late Thursday at an altitude of 1,547 miles and shows a 30.9-mile-by-11.7-mile area of the planet's midlatitude southern highlands, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said. The mosaic of 10 exposures shows a cratered surface with ravine- or canyon-like channels.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said that the smallest discernible objects are about 25 feet across but that the camera will be able to capture objects less than 3 feet across once it reaches its much lower ''mapping orbit."