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China's Mars Probe Sends Back Video of Red Planet

The planet Mars is shown May 12, 2016 in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope view taken May 12, 2016 when it was 50 million miles from Earth. NASA/Handout via Reuters
The planet Mars is shown May 12, 2016 in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope view taken May 12, 2016 when it was 50 million miles from Earth. NASA/Handout via Reuters
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China's Mars Probe Sends Back Video of Red Planet

The planet Mars is shown May 12, 2016 in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope view taken May 12, 2016 when it was 50 million miles from Earth. NASA/Handout via Reuters
The planet Mars is shown May 12, 2016 in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope view taken May 12, 2016 when it was 50 million miles from Earth. NASA/Handout via Reuters

China's space agency released video footage from its spacecraft circling Mars on Friday, two days after it successfully entered the planet's orbit in Beijing's latest ambitious space mission.

In the video, published by state broadcaster CCTV, the surface of the planet is seen coming into view out of a pitch black sky against the outside of the Tianwen-1, which entered the orbit of the Red Planet on Wednesday.

White craters are visible on the planet's surface, which fades from white to black through the video as the probe flies over the course of one Martian day, said official news agency Xinhua.

The five-ton Tianwen-1 -- which translates as "Questions to Heaven" -- includes a Mars orbiter, a lander and a solar-powered rover and launched from southern China last July.

It is the latest step in Beijing's space program, which aims to establish a crewed space station by 2022 and eventually put an astronaut on the moon, and has opened up a new, extraterrestrial arena for US-China competition.

Tianwen-1 launched around the same time as a rival US mission, and is expected to touch down on the surface of the planet in May.

Its success comes the same week as the United Arab Emirates' "Hope" probe also successfully entered Mars' orbit -- making history as the Arab world's first interplanetary mission.

Chinese scientists hope to land a 240-kilogram rover in May in Utopia, a massive impact basin on Mars. Its orbiter will last for a Martian year.

For the three-month study of the planet's soil and atmosphere, the mission will take photos, chart maps and look for signs of past life.

The probe has already sent back its first image of Mars -- a black-and-white photo that showed geological features including the Schiaparelli crater and the Valles Marineris, a vast stretch of canyons on the Martian surface.

Mars has proved to be a challenging target, with most missions since 1960, sent by Russia, Europe, Japan and India, ending in failure.

NASA's Perseverance, which is set to touch down on the Red Planet on February 18, will become the fifth rover to complete the voyage since 1997 -- and all so far have been American.

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A River Overflows in Southern China, Stranding People and Turning Streets into Canals 

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, an aerial view show floodwaters from a river overwhelmed towns following days of heavy rain, in Huaiji County, south China's Guangdong Province on June 19, 2025. (Deng Hua/Xinhua via AP)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, an aerial view show floodwaters from a river overwhelmed towns following days of heavy rain, in Huaiji County, south China's Guangdong Province on June 19, 2025. (Deng Hua/Xinhua via AP)
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A River Overflows in Southern China, Stranding People and Turning Streets into Canals 

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, an aerial view show floodwaters from a river overwhelmed towns following days of heavy rain, in Huaiji County, south China's Guangdong Province on June 19, 2025. (Deng Hua/Xinhua via AP)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, an aerial view show floodwaters from a river overwhelmed towns following days of heavy rain, in Huaiji County, south China's Guangdong Province on June 19, 2025. (Deng Hua/Xinhua via AP)

Rescue workers used rubber dinghies to evacuate people and deliver food and water Wednesday after floodwaters overwhelmed towns in southern China's Guangdong province.

About 30,000 people have been evacuated in Huaiji County after days of heavy rain, state broadcaster CCTV said.

More than half of the county's roads were submerged and power and internet outages were widespread.

The Suijiang River overflowed in an urban area, turning wide swaths of streets into canals. Aerial footage showed high-rise apartment buildings and leafy green trees sticking up from a sea of mud-colored water. In some parts, the water reached about halfway up the first floor and left only the tops of cars visible.

Huaiji County is near the border with the Guangxi region and about 140 kilometers (90 miles) northwest of Guangzhou, a major industrial and port city that is the provincial capital.

Tropical storm Wutip brought heavy rain to the region and was followed by monsoon rains earlier this week. Five people died in Guangxi in two landslides triggered by the tropical storm last weekend.

A rescue worker interviewed on a livestream by the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper said his team needed to evacuate seriously ill patients from a hospital. The team had delivered milk powder and water to a woman with a newborn baby and was sending supplies to dozens of children and elderly people who were at a school.