I don’t care how commonplace images like these have become over the past decade…it still fascinates me to look at photos of the rocky Martian landscape. Rugged, barren and empty as it is, it’s another planet. Every hill, every rock, every sand dune has never been touched by a person, or perhaps even any living…
Tag: Mars
Devils’ Causeways
Like a child’s random scribblings, the tracks of countless dust devils trace dark swirls across the surface of Mars in a region called Russell Crater. Dust devils – caused by surface air heated during the day rising upwards in spinning columns – are extremely common on Mars and pick up the thin Martian sand easily,…
When the Wind Blows
This 20-frame animation shows dust-laden winds blowing across the Martian plains near Spirit’s current position…which is the same position she’s been in for several weeks since becoming mired in the soft sand on the western edge of “Home Plate”. Regardless of her predicament, Spirit’s energy levels are in good supply due to these same winds…
Between Rocks and a Soft Place
All dusted off and nowhere to go. The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is still stuck in her current position west of the low plateau called “Home Plate”, with the MER team at JPL still trying to devise a way to get her moving again. The sands on the slopes of Home Plate have proven…
An Icy Web
The veinous texture seen here is part of the south polar region on Mars, imaged by the HiRISE hi-resolution camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Receding carbon dioxide ice, melting during the ongoing spring months, creating the polygonal shapes separated by sinuous ridges. This is known as “spider” terrain. The dark marks are caused…
Photo Op
A grainy black-and-white image of the underside of Opportunity, taken over the past couple of days. Unretouched, out of focus, slightly underexposed. In terms of its scientific value, a throw-away. But…..I like it. A lot. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Badge of Honor
While waiting for the Mars Exploration Rover team to get it unstuck from its current position, the Spirit rover turned its camera onto itself, highlighting the badge it proudly displays on its solar panel. With all of the spacecraft that have been launched into the heavens over the past half century or so, this…
Off the Hook
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…
Destination: Endeavour
The Exploration Rover Opportunity, moving steadily across the low dunes of the Meridiani Plains while its sister Spirit is mired in soft sands half a planet away (temporarily we hope!), takes a photo of its eventual destination: the 14-mile-wide crater Endeavour, still several miles away. The mountainous northern rim of the crater is visible…
Devil in the Skies
Spirit captures a dust devil in the distance on camera in this image from a few days ago. I colorized it to enhance detail (and make it a little more “Mars-y”) from the original raw file. Dust devils are common this time of year at Spirit’s location. They are cause by warmer air near…
Chaos Crunch
No, it’s not the back of a Nestle Crunch bar…it’s a photo of a region on Mars known as “Ariadnes Colles”. This lumpy, rock-filled landscape is called chaos terrain, and in other areas of Mars is usually attributed to water erosion but in this case it’s believed that wind is the source. The image above…
Waves of Sand
Like rust-colored ocean waves frozen in mid-motion, miniature sand dunes sit at the base of Pioneer Mound in this panoramic image, taken by the Spirit rover last month and assembled here by James Canvin. Spirit has recently started traveling again after a two-week hiatus while engineers on the MER team tried to diagnose some…
Lights in the Dark 