Black and White With A Hint of Colour
View allAll Photos Tagged Image_Cutout
Data from the CRISM instrument shows a localized, unique spectral phase consistent with polyhydrated sulfate or zeolite here on the Mawrth Vallis channel floor, with implications for the regional history. We want to look for potential textural differences between new hydrated mineral and adjacent clays.
Image cutout is less than 1 km (under a mile) top to bottom and the spacecraft altitude was 285 km (177 mi) and north is to the right. For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_022578_2030
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona
This image from the Gordii Dorsum region of Mars shows a large area covered with polygonal ridges in an almost geometric pattern.
The ridges may have originally been dunes which hardened (indurated) through the action of an unknown process. Groundwater might have been involved.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) top to bottom across and the spacecraft altitude was 278 km (173 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_017348_1910
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona
The layered bedrock in this image was brought from several kilometers of depth during the formation of this 44 kilometer wide crater in the volcanic plains of Lunae Planum.
As these layers were exhumed and brought to nearly vertical orientations, faulting and fracturing occurred and breccia dikes formed. Breccias are rocks consisting of angular and sharp fragments, and a dike is a fracture that has been widened by forces pulling apart the rock while simultaneously filling it with rocky materials. Breccia dikes are a common feature in terrestrial craters and can now be recognized in brilliant preservation on Mars.
This high-resolution, false-color image cutout above allows us to see a cross-cutting breccia dike near the bottom of the image.
This is a stereo pair with ESP_017055_1975.
The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Dark slope lineae was visible in previous images, so we want to monitor and see if and how they are changing.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 255 km (159 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona
The steep-sided plateau in this image has a sharp, undulating surface possibly etched out and eroded by persistent winds. These same winds may well have transported the resulting sediment to the surrounding plains helping to form the dunes below. The plateau slopes are steep and consist of a series of parallel bright, more resistant cliff forming layers and darker, less resistant slope material.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 271 km (168 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_017581_1765
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona
The science rationale for this observation was simple: “Need additional images to keep monitoring this slope streak site.” Okay!
Tooting is an impact crater with volcanic features. It might be hundreds of thousands of years old, making it a geologically young Martian crater. The crater’s youth was inferred from the lack of superimposed cratering, preserved impact melt in the crater, and that the central peak of the crater has not been buried by sediment.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 2856 km (178 miles). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_073683_2035
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona
This chain of impact craters almost look like they’ve all melted! But our objective here is to examine the dipping layers within the craters. This scene is also visible in a larger Context Camera image.
The terrain in Protonilus Mensae is often described as “fretted” that is common to certain areas of Mars. This terrain contains cliffs, mesas, and wide flat valleys. Surface features are believed to have been caused by debris-covered glaciers.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 299 km (186 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_070801_2240
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
With terrain like that in Arabia Terra, it’s considered imperative to get more images to create stereo pairs for 3D images. Even without a 3D image, we can appreciate measuring the thickness of the abundant layers here.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) top to bottom across and the spacecraft altitude was 278 km (173 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona
The main science objective for this observation is to measure the cone’s size and shape and compare obtained values with other three fields of cones in other areas of Mars. Such a study may help to find out if small cones within these fields bear similarities or not, and hence if they have been formed by same process or not.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (under 3 mi) top to bottom and is 282 km (175 mi) above the surface. For full images including scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_065976_1990
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
There is an intriguing surface unit in parts of the ancient Martian highlands that may consist of chloride salts (like NaCl, or table salt) which precipitated out of shallow lakes as in desert regions of Earth.
It has unusual thermal properties and distinctive morphologies, but lacks spectral absorption bands. All of these characteristics and the geologic settings are consistent with salt deposits. These deposits are often associated with clay minerals that do have distinctive absorption bands.
Image cutout is less than 1 km (under 1 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 266 km (165 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
The gullies shown in this image are similar to terrestrial gullies produced by flowing water. The current Martian climate would not allow for liquid water to be stable at the surface for extended periods of time, though. These gullies could have formed under a different climate, or perhaps they were carved by short-lived streams; they could also have been produced by dry landslides.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 251 km (156 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/PSP_003708_1335
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
This cutout features a section of a larger and unnamed impact crater on the northwestern side. What is striking are the numerous small hills and layers running across the scene.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) top to bottom and the spacecraft altitude was 256 km (159 mi). North is to the right. For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_073095_1560
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona
This image was acquired in order to complete stereo mosaic coverage of this constriction, which was likely carved by lava.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 280 km (174 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_073812_1990
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona
From a distance, the floor of this crater looks like a giant honeycomb or spider web. The intersecting shapes, or polygons, commonly occur in the northern lowlands of Mars.
The polygons in this “patterned ground” are easy to see because their edges are bound by troughs or ridges covered by bright frost relative to their darker, frost-free interiors. Patterned ground on Mars is thought to form as the result of cyclic thermal contraction cracking in the permanently frozen ground.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 314 km (195 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_016641_2500
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
The larger, darker bedforms are dunes composed of sand, most likely of fine size. Ripples tend to move slower than dunes. Because of this, over time, ripples get covered with dust, possibly explaining the bright tone visible here. The dunes are dark probably because they are composed of basaltic sand (derived from dark, volcanic rock) that is blown by the wind enough that dust does not sufficiently accumulate to change their color.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 253 km (157 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_011909_1320
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona
The objective of this observation is to examine a hole in the terrain that will give us a cross-sectional view of the thick mantle in this region. There are also hints of visible ice.
The scene was also imaged by the Context Camera.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 248 km (154 mi). For full images including scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_066196_1200
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
According to a CRISM data, hydrated phases occur in the northern section of this crater wall. We want to know what the morphologic (shape) relationship is with the rest of the topography. Context Camera images are too ambiguous, but it looks like it’s not directly associated with bedrock exposures.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 277 km (172 mi). For full images including scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_018553_1975
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
This portion of our 2010 image shows spectacular Noachian-epoch diversity with the rock and mineralogy. The Noachian age of Mars goes back approximately 3 to 4.5 billion years ago and was a promising era for a possible emergence of life on Mars.
Enhanced image cutout is less than 1 km (under a mile) top to bottom and north is to the left. For full images, including map-projected with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_020531_2005
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
This image was a public request from our HiWish program. The rationale was to match the footprint of a previous image from 2016 in order to identify any changes since then.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 250 km (156 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_072925_1320
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
This HiRISE image shows frosted gullies on a south-facing slope within a crater.
At this time of year only south-facing slopes retain the frost, while the north-facing slopes have melted. Gullies are not the only active geologic process going on here. A small crater is visible at the bottom of the slope.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 254 km (158 mi). For full images including scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_039114_1115
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
This observation shows a terrific fan-shaped deposit, beginning where the channel enters a crater. This is suggestive of a delta: a deposit that forms when water in a channel flows into a larger area (such as an ocean or a lake). As the water spreads out, it moves slower and drops the sediment that it is carrying, forming the delta. (E.g., a famous Earth example is the Nile River delta.)
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) top to bottom and the spacecraft altitude was 292 km (182 mi) and north is to the right. For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_024887_2155
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
This HiRISE image shows terrain typical of these mantling deposits in the Southern Hemisphere, east of Reull Vallis. The pitted texture suggests that ice is sublimating out from the deposits as the region is warmed under current lower obliquity conditions.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 251 km (156 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_037474_1380
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Our science goal is straight-forward: document stratigraphic relationships between fossae and adjacent geologic units. (A fossa is a long, narrow, shallow depression.) Idaeus Fossae is a complex set of channels on the margin of Tempe Terra and Acidalia Planitia.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (under 3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 185 km. For full images including scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_071609_2195
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
According to CRISM multispectral data, the exposures of light-toned materials (~on small hills and between darker dunes~) shows a strong iron-magnesium phyllosilicate (clay) signatures in this area. Phyllosilicates, or sheet silicates, are an important group of minerals that includes the micas, chlorite, serpentine, talc, and the clay minerals.
The existence of clay minerals is especially interesting on Mars since we want to know under what conditions these minerals formed. Could it have been the presence of water?
Image cutout is less than 1 km (under 1 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 263 km (164 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
This observation was requested to help determine the origins of the diverse materials exposed in a number of massifs associated with the Hellas impact basin.
This image cutout is less than 1 km (under a mile) from top to bottom and was taken 254 km (158 mi) above the surface. North is to the right. For full images including scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_071078_1540
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Hesperia Planum is a broad lava plain in the southern highlands of Mars. The plain is notable for its moderate number of impact craters and abundant wrinkle ridges, and that feature is one that we can see running across the width of this scene.
This region is the classic area for Martian surfaces that formed in the “middle ages” of Martian history. The absolute age of these surfaces is not well known. However, using the abundance of impact craters, it is possible to determine that the Hesperian plains are younger than the ancient cratered terrains that dominate the Southern Hemisphere, and are older than low-lying plains of the Northern Hemisphere.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 256.4 km (159.4 miles). For full images including scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_021847_1590
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Potential recurring slope lineae was detected in earlier images, perhaps associated with the sulfate-rich layers we find here. Melas Chasma is part of the Valles Marineris canyon system.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 261 km (162 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_073667_1670
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona
The enhanced-color cutout shows a great variety of colors and textures in the bedrock, where it is exposed from beneath a dark fine-grained mantle. The mantle is sometimes modified by the wind into dunes. The bedrock here includes massive, layered, and broken-up (brecciated) areas.
Image cutout is less than 1 km (under 1 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 256 km (159 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_025296_1535
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
The blue and green colors are generally due to mafic (magnesium and iron rich) minerals that are not altered by water, while the warmer colors are due to altered minerals like clays. The structure in this scene is quite complex from a combination of impact and perhaps fluvial and volcanic processes, tectonic faulting, and erosion.
Image cutout is less than 1 km (under 1 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 285 km (177 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_028825_2070
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
This image covers a small portion of gigantic Coprates Chasma, part of Valles Marineris.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 260 km (161 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_028962_1645
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
How exactly can we tell if an impact crater is new?
In this observation, we see a dark spot with a larger, rayed “blast zone” that was also apparent in a Context Camera image taken in 2011 (an instrument with a larger footprint than HiRISE and also on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter). However, a THEMIS image of the same area acquired in 2009 does not show the dark spot at all.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 262 km (163 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_027077_1785
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
This is only one of four impact craters known that possesses intact layers exposed in the central uplift. Scientists believe this layered material originates from kilometers beneath the present surface and is raised up during the formation of the crater itself. These craters give us a window into these deep layers, which would otherwise remain hidden.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 252 km (157 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_033248_1520
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Boulders up to several meters in size densely coat the landscape. In some areas only smaller rocks less than a meter across dominate the surface, while a couple hundred meters away may be a somewhat circular “blotch” of larger boulders. Often these blotches of boulders coincide >with a faint circular ridge, the remnant of an impact crater now reduced by erosion and infilling to a a mere hint of a crater rim. The abundant boulders excavated by the impact, however, remain scattered over the surface to mark the past event.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 310 km (192 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
This image covers most of an impact crater about 6 to 7 kilometers wide. Partway down from the crater rim is a prominent bright layer of bedrock. These layers must correspond to different types of rock that were deposited as nearly flat-lying sheets, perhaps a combination of lava flows and sediments. (In this cutout, North is approximately down.)
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 256 km (159 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_028693_1535
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Smaller light toned ridge-like ripples draped over the bright bedrock, while long dark sand dunes superpose the small ridges, indicating that the sand dunes formed more recently than the ridges. Earlier observations have shown that the small ridges, known as "transverse aeolian ridges" or TARs, appear to be fixed in place. They are typically found near the equator of Mars, in places where the winds alternate in direction over daily or seasonal cycles.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 266 km (165 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_025297_1730
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Ok, not really a bouncy ball, but really a giant galaxy. The two center galaxies are clearly gravitationally bound to one another and are in the process of orbiting and perhaps eventually merging into a single apparent entity.
What really makes this interesting is that one of them, 3C346, has an active nucleus with a jet flinging material away from it at some significant fraction of light speed. Furthermore, the curving shape of the jet needs an explanation. What could it be?
If we could imagine the scene animated over millions of years, it might become clearer. Does the path of the jet trace the motion of the galaxy's nucleus as it orbits and is orbited by its partner? It really does look like a spiral shape seen from such an angle to make part of it appear to have a hard angle.
Well, maybe I am wrong. The one paper ( adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?db_key=AST&b... ) I managed to find regarding the shape of the jet explains it as resulting from interactions within the cluster atmosphere. I'm not really in any position to offer a proper disagreement.
Anyway, it's interesting either way.
The color for this image was derived from PanSTARRS data. There is one incredible ACS image in the Hubble archive which is useful for a non-color image and a variety of other bands and spectroscopy are available, but generating a "pretty" picture from that alone didn't quite work out, so I checked on the PanSTARRS image cutout service and went with that. The result is that only the brighter objects in the frame have coloration. This is not an ideal situation, but the object is interesting enough to at least try and get people to look at.
Luminance: ACS/WFC F606W
Red: PanSTARRS z
Green: PanSTARRS y+r
Blue: PanSTARRS g
North is up.
One of the most eye-catching aspects of this scene are the intricate swirls that these layers form. Sedimentary rock generally accumulates in horizontal layers. These layers, however, have been folded into the patterns that we see today. Folding of the layers that are exposed here may have occurred due to the weight of overlying sediments.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 262 km (163 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/PSP_001984_1735
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
This formation of light-toned mounds on the floor of Ganges Chasma have been shaped by two erosional processes: landslides and wind.
You can also see the pattern of dark dunes that line the Ganges Chasma floor change as they interact with these mounds, showing a kind of parabolic exclusion zone along the east end of the mounds, indicating that the dominant wind direction is to the west.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 266 km (165 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona
This image covers part of the northwest rim of Hale Crater. Gullies have formed down the interior rim of the crater in this location.
Bright material deposits are evident along the walls of some gullies. These deposits might be the result of transport or exposure of finer-grained sediments, variations in the brightness of dust or materials, or the presence of ice or fresh deposits within the gullies.
Image cutout is less than 1 km (under 1 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 255 km (159 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_014074_1445
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Have you ever found that to describe something you had to go to the dictionary and search for just the right word?
The South Polar terrain is so full of unearthly features that we had to visit Mr. Webster to find a suitable term. “Araneiform” means “spider-like.” These are channels that are carved in the surface by carbon dioxide gas. We do not have this process on Earth.
The channels are somewhat radially organized and widen and deepen as they converge. In the past we’ve just referred to them as “spiders.” “Isolated araneiform topography” means that our features look like spiders that are not in contact with each other.
Image cutout is less than 1 km (under 1 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 244 km (152 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/PSP_003087_0930
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
This image footprint shows us a stunning view of light-toned substrate and rocky outcrops. It’s located in an intercrater area previously seen in Viking images (637A36 and 635A94.) THEMIS data indicates that this is a possible high thermal inertia area, meaning that heats persists more noticeably than other parts of the terrain.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 257 km (160 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_012562_1545
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona
This image was requested to fill in HiRISE coverage for locations where there are CRISM images.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 275 km (171 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_074153_1830
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona
4-layered, handmade "Thank you" card.
Materials: Card stocks; reused part of card from muddledmind (Thanks!); Japanese image cutout.
Tyrrhena Terra is located in the cratered highlands of the Southern Hemisphere of Mars. It is one of the regions where instruments like OMEGA and CRISM (the latter also on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) have identified numerous detections of hydrated silicates.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 263 km (163 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_023668_1750
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Sometimes, the nicest pictures we acquire don’t need a long explanation, so we are parking this image of the northern part of large, less than 5-km diameter crater for your visual enjoyment.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 270 km (168 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_024355_1900
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
This image was requested to gain HiRISE coverage over existing high-resolution CRISM data.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 283 km (176 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_074057_2030
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
This stunning image shows the traces left behind from dust devils, that have scoured the top layer of the surface and exposed the darker substrate.
Dust devils are fairly common on Mars, sometimes leaving brighter trails rather than dark ones. Over time, we can see beautiful lines criss-crossing the sand.
Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 249 km (155 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link.
www.uahirise.org/ESP_014185_1095
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona