These oddly-shaped landforms reside on the south polar region of Mars, an area rich in carbon-dioxide frost…aka dry ice. These embryonic features develop fairly rapidly and then erode back into the icy surface at a rate of about 15 feet per year. Click for a wider angle view of the region. (Looks like spilled…
Tag: HiRISE
Dividing Line
At some moment between May of 2003 and September of 2007 a cluster of meteorites struck the Martian sands, excavating craters and blasting the rusty dust away to reveal the dark underlying surface layers. Most likely the result of one object that broke up in the thin atmosphere of Mars, its pieces landing near…
Focus!
At first glance it may seem as if the University of Arizona’s HiRISE camera needs a little focus adjustment. But notice the few scattered little impact craters and dune ripples in this image and you’ll realize there’s nothing wrong with the focus—it’s the surface of Mars that’s blurry here!
Intersection
The sinuous knife edge of three dune ridges connect in this photo from the HiRISE camera aboard the MRO. Click for a higher resolution version…the texture of the surface sand becomes more visible. Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
A Fresh Wound
This image from the HiRISE camera on the MRO shows an impact crater that is estimated to have been formed some time between February and July of 2005. This feature is in an equatorial highland region of Mars. The colors here are not true to life…they indicate material composition and density more than actual…
A Tangled Web
Criscrossing the south polar region of Mars, cracks and ridges line the frozen ground, broken by the occasional spray of dark material spewed by a geyser of released subsurface gases. These lines are referred to as “spider troughs” due to their resemblance to cobwebs, as seen from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This image was…
A Blooming Thaw
When the Martian ice fields warm up in the spring, geysers of gas and dust burst from the frozen surface, spraying darker material into the air. This material is carried by the wind across the ground, forming patterns that mark the direction of the wind when they erupted. Much of the ice on the…
Deimos Rising
Released today, this photo from the HiRISE camera aboard the MRO shows the smooth face of Deimos, Mars’ smaller moon. (Its larger brother is Phobos, also photographed by the HiRISE in 2008.) Its surface is covered by a fine layer of rocky soil, called regolith, which gives it its smooth texture. Deimos is only…
Dark Dunes
Dark-colored sand dunes mark the terrain on Chasma Boreale, a trough that cuts into the north polar ice fields of Mars. These are known as barchan dunes…like their counterparts on Earth, they have steep edges with “horns” that point in the direction of the wind. The dune material could either be dark sand or…
Evening Shadows
A high mesa in the Ganges Chasma region of Mars casts long shadows in the evening sunlight. Actually part of a larger mesa structure rising out of the chasm, itself part of the giant Mariner Valley that slices across Mars, this marbled plateau (seen in contrast-enhancing false color) was photographed by the HiRISE camera…
Eye in the Sky
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this photo of the Opportunity rover traversing the sand dunes of Meridiani Plain from its position in orbit, 172 miles away. The rover’s tracks can be seen extending away up and right in this image. (North is up.) Click the photo above to see the original cut shot. Opportunity is…
Red Planet Tours Now Departing
As a special treat for today, I’ve assembled a montage of amazing video footage from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera and put it to music by the talented Nicholas Gunn (a fitting track from his Grand Canyon album.) These videos were CG constructed using stereo image data and topographical mapping information from the MRO, recreating…
Lights in the Dark 