HiRISE (NASA)
HiRISE is a high resolution camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (NASA). We take images of the surface of Mars. Based out of UArizona in Tucson.
Joined Aug 2018
Colorful Bedrock Exposed in a Landslide Scarp
The steep walls of Valles Marineris sometimes fail, creating giant landslides. This provides a clean exposure of the underlying bedrock.
This image of the north wall of Ganges Chasma reveals bedrock with diverse colors and textures, representing different geologic units.
ID: ESP_047502_1730
date: 13 September 2016
altitude: 264 km
https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_047502_1730
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
#Mars #science #NASA
HiRISE 3D: Possible Spatter Cones East of Arsia Mons
A “spatter cone” is a miniature volcanic cone on a crater floor or lava flow from which lava is ejected in drops or gobs.
https://www.uahirise.org/anaglyph/ESP_082873_1715_ESP_083440_1715_RED
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
The Coolest Landscape on Mars (or Earth)
Many Martian landscapes contain features that are familiar to ones we find on Earth, like river valleys, cliffs, glaciers and volcanos.
However, Mars has an exotic side too, with landscapes that are alien to Earthlings. This image shows one of these exotic locales at the South Pole.
More: https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_047304_0930
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
#Mars #science #NASA
How Gas Carves Channels
The ground likely started as polygonal patterned ground (common in water-ice-rich surfaces), and then escaping gas widened the channels. Fans of dark material are bits of the surface carried onto the top of the seasonal ice layer and deposited in a direction determined by local winds.
ID: ESP_046845_0975
date: 24 July 2016
altitude: 247 km
https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_046845_0975
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
#Mars #science #NASA
HiPOD: Bang and Whoosh!
This HiRISE image captures a new, dated (within about a decade) impact crater that triggered a slope streak. When the meteoroid hit the surface and exploded to make the crater, it also destabilized the slope and initiated this avalanche.
Slope streaks are created when dry dust avalanches leave behind dark swaths on dusty Martian hills.
https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_054066_1920
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
#Mars #science #NASA
HiPOD: Martian Meanders and Scroll-Bars
Channels become inverted when the sediments filling them become more resistant to erosion than the surrounding material. Here, the most likely process leading to hardening of the channel material is chemical cementation by precipitation of minerals. Once the surrounding material erodes, the channel is left standing as a ridge.
HiPOD: It Shrinks! It Cracks!
Here, we have a crater that lies close to Elysium, a major volcanic system on Mars. The whole region surrounding the crater was at some point covered by lava from the volcano creating vast lava plains, and in the process, flooding impact craters in their way.
HiPOD: Dune Transition in the High Southern Latitudes
This image shows a moderate sized dune field (-72 degrees latitude) that displays most of these morphologic features and a noticeable absence of dune crests. This transition is likely related to polar processes, ground ice, and changes in regional climate relative to the rest of the planet.
HiRISE 8K: The Floor of Kasei Valles
This HiRISE image shows a wonderfully complex surface on the floor of this ancient flood-carved canyon.
Full cutout: https://flic.kr/p/2q3Kpyf
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
HiRISE 3D: Gullied Slope Monitoring
These impressive gullies are worth not only having stereo images, but also tracking changes over time.
Full image: https://www.uahirise.org/anaglyph/ESP_083492_1325_ESP_083426_1325_RED
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
HiPOD: A South Polar Pit or an Impact Crater?
It is late summer in the Southern Hemisphere, so the Sun is low in the sky and subtle topography is accentuated in orbital images.
We see many shallow pits in the bright residual cap of carbon dioxide ice (also called “Swiss cheese terrain”). There is also a deeper, circular formation that penetrates through the ice and dust. This might be an impact crater or it could be a collapse pit.
https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_049972_0930
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
#Mars
HiRISE 4K: Holden Crater Megabreccia
This HiRISE image covers the southwest portion of the terraces and floor of Holden Crater situated in southwest Margaritifer Terra.
Full cutout: https://flic.kr/p/2q3woMn
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
HiRISE 3D: Channels in Tyrrhena Terra
The objective of this observation is to examine channels that appear to end at the same level. Maybe they were emptying into a lake.
https://www.uahirise.org/anaglyph/ESP_083327_1520_ESP_083116_1520_RED
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
HiPOD: A Woodpecker on Mars?
This image reveals some bright materials on a crater floor, part of which forms an outline similar to a woodpecker. This bright material appears to have collected in relative topographic low areas, perhaps bright materials carried and deposited by water in Mars’ past. The concentric troughs (woodpecker's body) may be collapse features as seen elsewhere nearby.
https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_083512_1500
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
#Mars #science #NASA
HiPOD: An Ancient Valley Network
How the climate of Mars could have supported a warmer and wetter environment has been the subject of scientific debates for 40 years. A full-resolution enhanced color closeup reveals details in the bedrock and dunes on the valley floor (upper left). The bedrock of ancient Mars has been hardened and cemented by groundwater.
https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_049977_1610
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
#Mars #science #NASA
HiRISE 3D: Craters in Ejecta in Northern Mid-Latitudes
The objective of this observation is to determine the nature of a crater in ejecta that shows rings or layers.
https://www.uahirise.org/anaglyph/ESP_083373_2145_ESP_074986_2145_RED
HiPOD: Dune Ripples in Her Desher Vallis
These small ripples, about 10 meters apart, are located in Her Desher Vallis. Her Desher is a small channel that shows evidence of phyllosilicates—silicates with a sheet-like structure, such as clay minerals.
Much larger images of this area show that Her Desher Vallis appears isolated, with no obvious connections to craters or larger valleys. Her Desher, the ancient Egyptian name for Mars, translates to “the Red One.”
HiPOD: North Polar Layers: Streaking and Unconformity
This oblique image of part of the North Polar layered deposits, acquired in the summertime, shows both phenomena in the upper and lower panels, plus a topographic bend in the middle panel. Blue areas in this enhanced color image are covered by frost, whereas the darker colors are from differences in contamination and texture of the icy layers.
HiPOD: The White Cliffs of Rover
This image reminds us of the rugged and open terrain of a stark shore-line, perhaps of an island nation, such as the British Isles. A close-up in enhanced color produces a striking effect, giving the impression of a cloud-covered cliff edge with foamy waves crashing against it.
The reality is that the surface of Mars is much dryer than our imaginations might want to suggest.
HiRISE 3D: Mesa Stratigraphy at Terby Crater
The 2-3 km sequence of stratigraphy exposed across the three mesas in the northeastern portion of Terby Crater likely capture a diverse range of sedimentary rock types that include deposition across all of the three major Martian geologic eras.
https://www.uahirise.org/anaglyph/ESP_083697_1530_ESP_083486_1530_RED
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
HiRISE (NASA)
HiRISE is a high resolution camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (NASA). We take images of the surface of Mars. Based out of UArizona in Tucson.
Joined Aug 2018