NASA launched the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in August 2005 and the following year, on March 10, it entered the orbit of the red planet where it continues to operate today.
Data returned to Earth by the MRO has revealed Mars in unprecedented detail and over the years has helped scientists to find out more about the fascinating planet.
For example, during its work, the MRO has found signs that liquid water may appear seasonally on present-day Mars. Thanks to the orbiter’s ultra-sharp HiRISE camera, the discovery not only revealed details about Mars’ geology and climate, but also helped assess the planet’s potential to support microbial life.
The trusty spacecraft also gathers data on the planet’s temperatures and minerals, and can even explore beneath the surface using its radar technology.
While its scientific work is as important as it is exciting, the spacecraft is best known for the incredible imagery that it captures from its orbit about 155–196 miles (250–316 km) up.
On the 20th anniversary on Tuesday, NASA shared some of those images in a post on X:
For 20 years, our Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has searched the planet for signs of long-ago water. It has sent back photos that are not only stunning, but useful – they’ll help us when future astronauts land on Mars to explore it. Which is your favorite? pic.twitter.com/mc4wHYjqm5
Below is a photo of a Mars crater spanning about 100 feet (30 meters) in diameter, surrounded by a large blast zone. The explosion that made this crater threw ejecta as far as 9.3 miles (15 km). Blue tones have been added to enhance the details.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
The next image, caught by chance, shows a towering dust devil tearing across the martian surface. Captured from 185 miles (297 kilometers) above the ground, the length of the whirlwind’s shadow tells us that it was more than half a mile (800 meters) high, which is similar to the height of the United Arab Emirate’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
The image below shows an area with unusual texture on the floor of Gale Crater, which is where NASA’s Curiosity rover landed in 2012. Blue tones have been added for a clearer view.
The rover is still operating there today (the MRO has even photographed it!), slowly climbing the base of Mount Sharp (Aeolis Mons), the large mountain at the center of the crater. It’s worth noting that the MRO also serves as a vital communications bridge, transmitting data from the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers back to Earth.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Again, blue tones have been added to the capture below to bring out details such as the tops of dunes and ripples. Like on Earth, many of these features change over time, with martian winds constantly blowing the sand, reshaping the landscape.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
NASA will continue operating the MRO for as long as the spacecraft remains healthy and has enough fuel, with plans for it to continue into the late 2020s, and possibly beyond.
That means we can look forward to lots more incredible images from the veteran Mars orbiter.
Spotify aims to provide a consistent listening experience that uses minimal data. As a result, your audio quality might be less than ideal, especially if you’re using a pair of high-fidelity headphones or high-end speakers. Here’s how to fix that.
Switch audio streaming quality to Very High or Lossless
The default audio streaming quality in both the mobile and desktop Spotify apps is set to Automatic, which usually keeps the audio quality at Normal, which is only 96 Kbps. Even though Spotify uses the Ogg Vorbis codec, which is superior to MP3, OGG files exhibit slight (but noticeable) digital noise, poor bass detail, dull treble, and a narrow soundstage at 96 Kbps.
Even worse, Spotify is aggressive about adjusting the automatic bitrate. Even though 4G is more than fast enough to stream high-quality OGG files, even with a weak signal, Spotify may still drop the quality to Low, which has a bitrate of just 24 Kb/s. You will notice such a sharp drop in quality, even on a pair of bottom-of-the-barrel headphones.
To rectify this, open the Spotify app, tap your user image, open “Settings and privacy,” and tap the “Media Quality” menu. Once there, set Wi-Fi streaming quality and cellular streaming quality to “Very high” or “Lossless.”
I recommend setting cellular streaming quality to Very high and reserving Lossless for Wi-Fi, since lossless streaming is very data-intensive. One hour of streaming lossless files can take up to 1GB of data, as well as a good chunk of your phone’s storage, because Spotify caches files you’re frequently streaming. Besides, you’ll struggle to notice the difference unless you’re listening to music on a wired pair of high-end headphones or speakers; wireless connection just doesn’t have the bandwidth needed to convey the full fidelity of Spotify lossless audio.
You might opt for High quality if you have a capped data plan, but I recommend doing so only if you stream hours upon hours’ worth of music every single day over a cellular network. For instance, I burn through about 8 GB of data per month on average while streaming about two hours of very high-quality music over a cellular network each day.
Feeling the squeeze when listening to your favorite song?
Set audio download quality to Very high or Lossless
If you tend to download songs and albums for offline listening, you should also set the audio download quality to “Very high” or “Lossless.” This setting is located just under the audio streaming quality section.
If you’ve got enough free storage on your phone, opt for the latter, but if you’d rather save storage space, set it to Very high. You’ll hardly hear the difference, but lossless files are about five times larger than the 320 Kb/s OGG files Spotify offers at its Very high quality setting, and they can quickly fill up your phone’s storage.
Adjust video streaming quality at your discretion
The last section of the Media quality menu is Video streaming quality. This sets the quality of video podcasts and music videos available for certain songs. Since I care about neither, I set it to “Very high” on Wi-Fi and “Normal” on cellular, but you should tweak the two options at your discretion because songs sound notably better at higher video streaming quality levels.
If you often watch videos over cellular and have unlimited data, feel free to toggle video quality to very high.
Make sure Data Saver mode is disabled
Even if your audio quality is set to Very high or Lossless, Spotify will switch to low-quality streaming if the app’s Data saver mode is enabled. This option is located in the Data saving and offline menu. Open the menu, then set it to “Always off,” or choose “Automatic” to have Spotify’s Data Saver mode kick in alongside your phone’s Data Saver mode.
You can also enable volume normalization and play around with the built-in equalizer
Credit: Lucas Gouveia / How-To Geek
Last but not least, there are two additional features you can play with to improve your listening experience. The first is volume normalization, which sets the same loudness for every track you’re listening to. This can be handy because different albums are mastered at different loudness levels, with newer music usually being louder.
Since I’m an album-oriented listener, I keep the option disabled. I can just play an album and set the audio volume accordingly, and I don’t really mind louder songs when listening to playlists, artists, or song radios.
But if you can’t stand one song being quiet and the next rattling the windows, visit the Playback menu, enable “Volume normalization,” and set it to “Quiet” or “Normal.” The “Loud” option can digitally compress files, and neither Spotify nor I recommend using it. This also happens with “Quiet” and “Normal,” since both adjust the decibel level of the master recording for each song, but the compression level is much lower and extremely hard to notice.
Before I end this, I should also mention that you can access the equalizer directly from the Spotify app, where you can fine-tune your music listening experience or pick one of the available equalizer presets. If your phone has a built-in equalizer, Spotify will open it; if it doesn’t, you can use Spotify’s. On my phone (a Samsung Galaxy S21 FE), I can only use One UI’s built-in equalizer.
To open the equalizer, open “Playback,” then hit the “Equalizer” button. Now you can equalize your audio to your heart’s content.
Adjusting just a few settings can have a drastic impact on your Spotify listening experience. If you aren’t satisfied with Spotify’s sound quality, make sure to adjust the audio before jumping ship. You should also check the sound quality settings from time to time, as Spotify can reset them during app updates.
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