View allAll Photos Tagged MarsReconnaissanceOrbiter
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of the monitoring of slopes in what looks like a crater. Color variant.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of avalanches from a cliff on a the north polar ice cap on Mars. (Larger version of what I posted earlier.) Inverted grayscale variant.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a crater floor in Tempe Fossae. Color/processing variant.
The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) took this image of sulfate- and pyroxene-containing deposits in the Candor Chasma region of Mars at 0747 UTC (2:47 a.m. EST) on December 2, 2006, near 6.7 degrees south latitude, 75.8 degrees west longitude. The image was taken in 544 colors covering 0.36-3.92 micrometers, and shows features as small as 40 meters (132 feet) across. The image is about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) wide at its narrowest point. The top panel in the montage above illustrates the location of CRISM data on a mosaic taken by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft's Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS). CRISM data cover an area centered on the southwestern part of Candor Chasma, where highland crust was depressed by faulting and buried by a kilometers-thick stack of layered deposits. The bottom two images are views of CRISM data. The lower left image is an infrared false color image, while at lower right is a spectral image that illustrates the distribution of sulfates in the layered deposits, the olivine and pyroxene that make up the faulted highland crust, and highcalcium pyroxene in the highland crust.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image by way of the European Space Agency of Oxia Planum on Mars, which is a leading candidate for the landing spot for the ExoMars rover in the future.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a crater with sand dunes at the bottom, being monitored for slope changes.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of the suspected landing site of the European Space Agency's Beagle 2 lander (which failed before or on landing).
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a crater on Mars in grayscale with a strip of color imagery overlaid it, showing the pretty (if subtle (at least until I get a hold of it)) colors. Color/processing variant.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter PR image of a layer of rocky material cut by some process (perhaps flowing water a billion or two years ago) and now filled by sand dunes. Inverted Grayscale variant.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a lava-filled crater (long since cooled off) in Elysium Planitia.
Edited NASA PR image from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showing the Curiosity Rover near the base of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater. Inverted grayscale variant.
Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23341
Original caption: NASA's Curiosity Mars rover can be seen in this image taken from space on May 31, 2019, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). In the image, Curiosity appears as a bluish speck.
The image shows Curiosity at a location called "Woodland Bay." It's just one of many stops the rover has made in an area referred to as the "clay-bearing unit" on the side of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain inside of Gale Crater.
Look carefully at the inset image, and you can make out what it is likely Curiosity's "head," technically known as the remote sensing mast. A bright spot appears in the upper-left corner of the rover. At the time this image was acquired, the rover was facing 65 degrees counterclockwise from north, which would put the mast in about the right location to produce this bright spot.
The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. 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.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Image Addition Date:
2019-07-12
Edited NASA PR image from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showing the Curiosity Rover near the base of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater. Color/processing variant.
Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23341
Original caption: NASA's Curiosity Mars rover can be seen in this image taken from space on May 31, 2019, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). In the image, Curiosity appears as a bluish speck.
The image shows Curiosity at a location called "Woodland Bay." It's just one of many stops the rover has made in an area referred to as the "clay-bearing unit" on the side of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain inside of Gale Crater.
Look carefully at the inset image, and you can make out what it is likely Curiosity's "head," technically known as the remote sensing mast. A bright spot appears in the upper-left corner of the rover. At the time this image was acquired, the rover was facing 65 degrees counterclockwise from north, which would put the mast in about the right location to produce this bright spot.
The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. 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.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Image Addition Date:
2019-07-12
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a crater on Mars whose slopes are being monitored for gully formation (a sign that something slide down the crater wall). Converted into a round image because, uh, it was fun. Actually, the result reminds me of a small moon of Jupiter or Saturn...
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter PR image of sand dunes in the center of Juventae Chasma.
Original caption: The ultimate origin of the sediment that forms Martian dunes has long been debated. While sand dunes on Earth are primarily sourced by quartz-bearing components of granitic continental crust, it's often suggested that sand on Mars derives from eroded volcanic flows or sedimentary deposits, but exact sources are often vague.
This image reveals a unique situation where this small dune field occurs along the summit of the large 1-mile-tall mound near the center of Juventae Chasma. The layered mound slopes are far too steep for dunes to climb, and bedform sand is unlikely to come from purely airborne material. Instead, the mound's summit displays several dark-toned, mantled deposits that are adjacent to the dunes and appear to be eroding into fans of sandy material.
Along with local HiRISE images, spectral data from other instruments on MRO have confirmed such units are likely to be the sand source for these mound summit dunes and reveal how landscape evolution on Mars might occur.
The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 27.8 centimeters (10.9 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning); objects on the order of 83 centimeters (32.7 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.
The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. 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.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Image Addition Date:
2018-10-01
This graphic illustrates where Mars mineral-mapping from orbit has detected a few minerals -- sulfates (blue) and iron oxides (pink) -- that can indicate where a volcano erupted beneath an ice sheet.
These mountains are in a region called Sisyphi Montes. In this graphic, the base image shows a portion of the region about 130 miles (230 kilometers) across, centered at 17.73 degrees east longitude, 63.46 degrees south latitude. Red outlines indicate possible subglacial volcanic structures. CRISM data are presented in the overlay box at upper right, with an indication of the ground area covered by this CRISM observation. The color key at upper left shows how the spectrometer data correspond to the presence of sulfates and iron oxide minerals, which are characteristic of subglacial volcanism sites on Earth.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of many many dust devil tracks messing up the surface of Mars.
May 26, 2008 -- A telescopic camera in orbit around Mars caught a view of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander suspended from its parachute during the lander's successful arrival at Mars Sunday evening, May 25.
The image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter marks the first time ever one spacecraft has photographed another one in the act of landing on Mars.
Meanwhile, scientists pored over initial images from Phoenix, the first ever taken from the surface of Mars' polar regions. Phoenix returned information that it was in good health after its first night on Mars, and the Phoenix team sent the spacecraft its to-do list for the day.
"We can see cracks in the troughs that make us think the ice is still modifying the surface," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. "We see fresh cracks. Cracks can't be old. They would fill in."
Camera pointing for the image from HiRISE used navigational information about Phoenix updated on landing day. The camera team and Phoenix team would not know until the image was sent to Earth whether it had actually caught Phoenix.
"We saw a few other bright spots in the image first, but when we saw the parachute and the lander with the cords connecting them, there was no question," said HiRISE Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen, also of the University of Arizona.
"I'm floored. I'm absolutely floored," said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. A team analyzing what can be learned from the Phoenix descent through the Martian atmosphere will use the image to reconstruct events.
HiRISE usually points downward. For this image [taken from 760 kilometers or 472 miles away at an altitude of 192 miles and traveling 7,600 miles per hour], the pointing was at 62 degrees, nearly two-thirds of the way from straight down to horizontal. To tilt the camera, the whole orbiter must tilt. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was already pointed toward the expected descent path of Phoenix to record radio transmissions from Phoenix.
McEwen said, "We've never taken an image at such an oblique angle before."
Monday's tasks for Phoenix include checkouts of some instruments and systems, plus additional imaging of the lander's surroundings.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter PR image of layers of sediments on Mars. Processing variant.
Original caption: The layered sedimentary deposits inside the giant canyons of Mars have puzzled scientists for decades. These light toned deposits have fine, horizontal laminations that are unlike the rugged rim rock of the Valles Marineris as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter (MRO).
Various ideas for the origin of the layered sediments have suggested lake deposits, wind blown dust and sand, or volcanic materials that erupted after the canyon was formed, and possibly filled with water.
One particular layered deposit, called Ceti Mensa, attracted attention because its deep red color in images collected by the Viking Orbiter mission during the 1970s. Located in west Candor Chasma in the north of the Valles Marineris, Ceti Mensa is an undulating plateau that rises 3 kilometers above the canyon floor and is bounded by steep scarps up to 1.5 kilometers in height. Deep red hues are on the west-facing scarp in particular. The red tint may be due to the presence of crystalline ferric oxide, suggesting that the material may have been exposed to heat or water, or both.
Spectral measurements by the Mars Express OMEGA and MRO CRISM instruments confirm the presence of hydrated sulfate salts, such as gypsum and kieserite . These minerals are important for two reasons. On Earth, they typically form in wet environments, suggesting that the deposits in Ceti Mensa may have formed under water. On Mars, these deposits could be valuable to future Martian colonists as fertilizer for growing crops.
In a view of the colorful west-facing scarp of Ceti Mensa, we see the interior layers of the deposit, giving us a window into the past history of the sediments as they accumulated over time. We also see layers that were previously too small to view, and a surface that is thoroughly fractured, eroded into knobs, and partially covered by young dark sand dunes.
This is a stereo pair with ESP_051986_1750.
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.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Image Addition Date:
2017-10-23
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of layered terrain with spider (the geologic kind, not the arachnid kind).
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of part of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater along with the Curiosity Rover a little above the center of the image. This version has an infrared channel, hence the different colors. Color/processing variant.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of Shalbatana Valles on Mars.
Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22182
Original caption: Layers, probably sedimentary in origin, have undergone extensive erosion in this image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) of Shalbatana Valles, a prominent channel that cuts through Xanthe Terra.
This erosion has produced several small mesas and exposed light-toned material that may differ in composition from the surrounding material.
The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 27.5 centimeters (10.8 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning); objects on the order of 82 centimeters (32.3 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.
The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. 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.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Image Addition Date:
2018-01-23
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter PR image of colorful streaks running down a crater on Mars. Color/processing variant.
Two views of Mars' moon Deimos from an old PR image from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Processing variant.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a circular landform north of Kasei Valles. Color/processing variant.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of part of Candor Chasma showing swirly rock and sand layers. Color/processing variant.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of part of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater along with the Curiosity Rover a little above the center of the image. This version has an infrared channel, hence the different colors.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of part of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater along with the Curiosity Rover a little above the center of the image. Color/processing variant.
A model of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Armin uses an instrument on the Orbiter to measure infrarred radiation emitted by the Martian atmosphere.
Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of the east end of a valley that cuts through the crater wall Jezero Crater. Color variant.