Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image used to support the theory of running water (albeit very salty running water) on Mars.

Original caption from main story: New findings from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars.

Using an imaging spectrometer on MRO, researchers detected signatures of hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on the Red Planet. These darkish streaks appear to ebb and flow over time. They darken and appear to flow down steep slopes during warm seasons, and then fade in cooler seasons. They appear in several locations on Mars when temperatures are above minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23 Celsius), and disappear at colder times.

“Our quest on Mars has been to ‘follow the water,’ in our search for life in the universe, and now we have convincing science that validates what we’ve long suspected,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This is a significant development, as it appears to confirm that water -- albeit briny -- is flowing today on the surface of Mars.”

These downhill flows, known as recurring slope lineae (RSL), often have been described as possibly related to liquid water. The new findings of hydrated salts on the slopes point to what that relationship may be to these dark features. The hydrated salts would lower the freezing point of a liquid brine, just as salt on roads here on Earth causes ice and snow to melt more rapidly. Scientists say it’s likely a shallow subsurface flow, with enough water wicking to the surface to explain the darkening.

"We found the hydrated salts only when the seasonal features were widest, which suggests that either the dark streaks themselves or a process that forms them is the source of the hydration. In either case, the detection of hydrated salts on these slopes means that water plays a vital role in the formation of these streaks," said Lujendra Ojha of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta, lead author of a report on these findings published Sept. 28 by Nature Geoscience.

Ojha first noticed these puzzling features as a University of Arizona undergraduate student in 2010, using images from the MRO's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE). HiRISE observations now have documented RSL at dozens of sites on Mars. The new study pairs HiRISE observations with mineral mapping by MRO’s Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM).

The spectrometer observations show signatures of hydrated salts at multiple RSL locations, but only when the dark features were relatively wide. When the researchers looked at the same locations and RSL weren't as extensive, they detected no hydrated salt.

Ojha and his co-authors interpret the spectral signatures as caused by hydrated minerals called perchlorates. The hydrated salts most consistent with the chemical signatures are likely a mixture of magnesium perchlorate, magnesium chlorate and sodium perchlorate. Some perchlorates have been shown to keep liquids from freezing even when conditions are as cold as minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 70 Celsius). On Earth, naturally produced perchlorates are concentrated in deserts, and some types of perchlorates can be used as rocket propellant.

Perchlorates have previously been seen on Mars. NASA's Phoenix lander and Curiosity rover both found them in the planet's soil, and some scientists believe that the Viking missions in the 1970s measured signatures of these salts. However, this study of RSL detected perchlorates, now in hydrated form, in different areas than those explored by the landers. This also is the first time perchlorates have been identified from orbit.

MRO has been examining Mars since 2006 with its six science instruments.

"The ability of MRO to observe for multiple Mars years with a payload able to see the fine detail of these features has enabled findings such as these: first identifying the puzzling seasonal streaks and now making a big step towards explaining what they are," said Rich Zurek, MRO project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

For Ojha, the new findings are more proof that the mysterious lines he first saw darkening Martian slopes five years ago are, indeed, present-day water.

"When most people talk about water on Mars, they're usually talking about ancient water or frozen water," he said. "Now we know there’s more to the story. This is the first spectral detection that unambiguously supports our liquid water-formation hypotheses for RSL."

The discovery is the latest of many breakthroughs by NASA’s Mars missions.

“It took multiple spacecraft over several years to solve this mystery, and now we know there is liquid water on the surface of this cold, desert planet,” said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “It seems that the more we study Mars, the more we learn how life could be supported and where there are resources to support life in the future.”

There are eight co-authors of the Nature Geoscience paper, including Mary Beth Wilhelm at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California and Georgia Tech; CRISM Principal Investigator Scott Murchie of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland; and HiRISE Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona. Others are at Georgia Tech, the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique in Nantes, France.

The agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin built the orbiter and collaborates with JPL to operate it.

More information about NASA's journey to Mars is available online at:

www.nasa.gov/topics/journeytomars

For more information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit:

www.nasa.gov/mro

Caption and image source: www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-evidence-that-li...

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of the Ceti Mensa region of Mars with its many layers.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of small patches of carbon dioxide snow on sand dunes in the north polar region of Mars.

This group of steeply inclined light-toned layers is bounded above and below by unconformities (sudden or irregular changes from one deposit to another) that indicate a “break” where erosion of pre-existing layers was taking place at a higher rate than deposition of new materials.

The layered deposits in Melas Basin may have been deposited during the growth of a delta complex. This depositional sequence likely represents a period where materials were being deposited on the floor of a lake or running river.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of dust devil tracks on sand dunes in Galle Carter (not "Gale" Crater) on Mars.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of an avalanche on a Martian north polar scarp exposing carbon dioxide frost that is falling down the scarp. The white spot in the dark layer is the falling carbon dioxide. Cropped and processed variant.

Original caption: This scarp at the edge of the North Polar layered deposits of Mars is the site of the most frequent frost avalanches seen by HiRISE. At this season, northern spring, frost avalanches are common and HiRISE monitors the scarp to learn more about the timing and frequency of the avalanches, and their relationship to the evolution of frost on the flat ground above and below the scarp.

This picture managed to capture a small avalanche in progress, right in the color strip. See if you can spot it in the browse image, and then click on the cutout to see it at full resolution. The small white cloud in front of the brick red cliff is likely carbon dioxide frost dislodged from the layers above, caught in the act of cascading down the cliff. It is larger than it looks, more than 20 meters across, and (based on previous examples) it will likely kick up clouds of dust when it hits the ground.

The avalanches tend to take place at a season when the North Polar region is warming, suggesting that the avalanches may be triggered by thermal expansion. The avalanches remind us, along with active sand dunes, dust devils, slope streaks and recurring slope lineae, that Mars is an active and dynamic planet.

Written by: Paul Geissler (30 September 2015)

Image and caption source: hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_042572_2640

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter PR image of a hill on Mars with radiating cracks.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of Curiosity next to Namib Dune in Gale Crater. Cropped variant.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of graben in Cerberus Fossae.

Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA12956

Original caption: This image shows part of Cerberus Fossae, a long system of extensional (normal) faults arranged in trough-bounding (graben-bounding) pairs. Cerberus Fossae served as the source of a large volcanic eruption that draped Athabasca Valles in lava.

Large boulders that have been dislodged from the graben walls are visible on the floor of Cerberus Fossae. The first subimage shows an example of an approximately 6 meter (20 feet) boulder that left a distinct track as it moved downhill. Although this track is quite clear, ripples inside the track are discernible, indicating that enough time has passed for wind activity to rework loose material into the form of ripples. With close examination of this observation, one can see many boulder tracks, some with ripples and some without ripples.

Wind streaks emanating from impact craters are visible on the plains surrounding Cerberus Fossae. The second subimage shows a false color image of an approximately 33 meters (108 feet) impact crater. Material on the crater floor (blue in the color image) is being moved by the wind out of the crater and across the plains. The wind streaks in this observation indicate that the predominant wind direction in this region is from East to West.

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the spacecraft development and integration contractor for the project and built the spacecraft.

Image Credit:

NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Image Addition Date:

2010-03-10

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of Curiosity in Gale Crater. This is an enlarged part of a much larger image (see following images) that shows Curiosity and some of her tracks in the sand. Color/processing variant.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of outflow material from Mafra Crater on Mars.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter MARCI PR image of Mars before and during the current global dust storm. Color/processing variant. The colors here are most definitely variant...

Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22487

Original caption: Side-by-side movies shows how dust has enveloped the Red Planet, courtesy of the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) camera onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

The view from May shows Valles Marineris chasms (left), Meridiani center, an autumn dust storm in Acidalia (top) and the early spring south polar cap (bottom). The view from July shows the same regions, but most of the surface was obscured by the planet-encircling dust cloud and haze.

Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, provided and operates MARCI. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft.

More information about Curiosity is online at www.nasa.gov/msl and mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/.

Image Credit:

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Image Addition Date:

2018-07-19

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of Swiss cheese terrain near the Martian south pole. Color/processing variant.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of sand dunes and layers in a crater in the Nilosyrtis region of Mars. Color/processing variant.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a dune field (being monitored for changed) in Syrtis Major on Mars. Processing variant.

I found this beautiful and amazing picture that is truly "out of this world" (right you guessed it, it's from Mars), which I like to share with you.

It is the picture of Phoenix Mars Lander suspended from its parachute during its successful landing on Mars Sunday evening, May 25.

The image is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (which was orbiting Mars at the time), taken with its telescopic camera.

This photo marks the first time ever one spacecraft has photographed another one in the act of landing on Mars.

Credit and thanks to: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of Curiosity (only a few pixels in size from MRO's perspective) in Gale Crater as she moved to a new location. Color/processing variant.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter PR image of a large rocky area in Aram Chaos on Mars.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of an avalanche on a Martian north polar scarp exposing carbon dioxide frost that is falling down the scarp. The white spot in the dark layer is the falling carbon dioxide. Cropped and processed variant.

Original caption: This scarp at the edge of the North Polar layered deposits of Mars is the site of the most frequent frost avalanches seen by HiRISE. At this season, northern spring, frost avalanches are common and HiRISE monitors the scarp to learn more about the timing and frequency of the avalanches, and their relationship to the evolution of frost on the flat ground above and below the scarp.

This picture managed to capture a small avalanche in progress, right in the color strip. See if you can spot it in the browse image, and then click on the cutout to see it at full resolution. The small white cloud in front of the brick red cliff is likely carbon dioxide frost dislodged from the layers above, caught in the act of cascading down the cliff. It is larger than it looks, more than 20 meters across, and (based on previous examples) it will likely kick up clouds of dust when it hits the ground.

The avalanches tend to take place at a season when the North Polar region is warming, suggesting that the avalanches may be triggered by thermal expansion. The avalanches remind us, along with active sand dunes, dust devils, slope streaks and recurring slope lineae, that Mars is an active and dynamic planet.

Written by: Paul Geissler (30 September 2015)

Image and caption source: hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_042572_2640

This Oct. 25, 2016, image shows the area where the European Space Agency's Schiaparelli test lander reached the surface of Mars, with magnified insets of three sites where components of the spacecraft hit the ground. It is the first view of the site from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter taken after the Oct. 19, 2016, landing event. Brightness is adjusted separately for each inset to best show the details of that part of the scene. North is about 7 degrees counterclockwise from straight up. The scale bars are in meters.

At lower left is the parachute, adjacent to the back shell, which was its attachment point on the spacecraft. The parachute is much brighter than the Martian surface in this region. The smaller circular feature just south of the bright parachute is about the same size and shape as the back shell, (diameter of 7.9 feet or 2.4 meters).

At upper right are several bright features surrounded by dark radial impact patterns, located about where the heat shield was expected to impact. The bright spots may be part of the heat shield, such as insulation material, or gleaming reflections of the afternoon sunlight.

At mid-upper left are markings left by the lander's impact. The dark, approximately circular feature is about 7.9 feet (2.4 meters) in diameter, about the size of a shallow crater expected from impact into dry soil of an object with the lander's mass -- about 660 pounds (300 kilograms) -- and calculated velocity.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of Curiosity next to Namib Dune in Gale Crater. Cropped to show the local region of Curiosity.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of fans on Mars caused by erupting carbon dioxide as it warms up in the local spring. Color/processing variant.

Thought I would try some digital handiwork on an image downloaded from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter program. For post info, check out my short blog at www.digitalladysyd.com/?p=6162

This "fresh" (very well-preserved) impact crater has created a radial pattern of dark rays. The image was suggested to address the question of why the rays are dark.

Is the crater so fresh and recent that there hasn't been time for bright dust to settle on the rays? That doesn't seem likely, as we can see windblown deposits inside the crater, which requires at least thousands of years to form after the impact event. Also, fresh craters with dark ejecta are common in Meridiani, and they can't all be extremely recent.

Did the crater eject a subsurface layer of dark material? Maybe, but all of the bedrock exposures in the surrounding region are relatively bright. The surface layer is darker than the bedrock because dark materials like hematite concretions ("blueberries" found by Opportunity rover) are resistant to wind erosion and get left as a lag deposit. At HiRISE scale the rays are seen to be a thin deposit, perhaps less than 1 meter thick.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of dry ice and water ice near the Martian south pole. Inverted grayscale variant.

Original caption: The Changing Climate of Mars

A story of changes in the climate of Mars is told by icy deposits. Remnants of a formerly extensive deposit composed of dry ice layered together with dust and water ice form what is known as the south polar residual cap.

This deposit is shrinking over time as the frozen carbon dioxide turns to vapor. Rounded valleys that give the deposit an appearance resembling Swiss cheese are enlarging over time, exposing an older surface below that is likely made up of water ice.

Read more: www.uahirise.org/ESP_056563_0960

NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of dust devil tracks on sand dunes in Galle Carter (not "Gale" Crater) on Mars.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a viscous flow with a crater artistically place.

Original caption: Viscous, lobate flow features are commonly found at the bases of slopes in the mid-latitudes of Mars, and are often associated with gullies.

These features are bound by ridges that resemble terrestrial moraines, suggesting that these deposits are ice-rich, or may have been ice-rich in the past. The source of the ice is unclear, but there is some thought that it is deposited from the atmosphere during periods of high obliquity, also known as axial tilt.

The flow features in this image are particularly massive and the bounding scarps appear very high standing and are layered as well. Take a look at the stereo anaglyph for a 3D view.

The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 25.9 centimeters (10.2 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning); objects on the order of 82 centimeters (32.2 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.

This is a stereo pair with ESP_048979_1330.

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

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter PR image/visualization of the estimated extent of an ancient Marian Sea.

Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22059

Original caption: The Eridania basin of southern Mars is believed to have held a sea about 3.7 billion years ago, with seafloor deposits likely resulting from underwater hydrothermal activity. This graphic shows estimated depths of water in that ancient sea.

A recent estimate of the total water volume of the ancient Eridania sea is about 50,000 cubic miles (210,000 cubic kilometers), about nine times the total volume of North America's Great Lakes. The map covers an area about 530 miles (850 kilometers) wide.

The reference bar (Figure 1) indicates color coding of depth, from red, at right, showing depth of about 300 feet (100 meters) to black showing depth more than 10 times that depth. This graphic was included in a 2017 report "Ancient hydrothermal seafloor deposits in Eridania basin on Mars" in Nature Communications.

Image Credit:

NASA

Image Addition Date:

2017-10-06

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of bedrock in Tyrrhena Terra. Color/processing variant.

Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22784

Original caption: Large craters, like this 50-kilometer diameter one, can uplift material from below and form a mountain-like central peak. Craters of this size on Mars become unstable as they form and collapse due to gravity. Craters with central peaks and terraced rims are referred to as "complex" craters.

Geologists study these central peaks because the uplifted bedrock was once deep within the Martian crust. A 3D perspective shows heavily-fractured bedrock exposed within the peak, and also dark-toned and fragmental rocks that formed during the impact process.

Sometimes, we observe similar rocks in the crater wall terraces. Some areas of the terrace show dark-toned materials coating and surrounding the white- and green-colored bedrock. This dark-toned rock was the once-molten material that was produced by the tremendous energy generated during the formation of the crater. Similarly, the impact melt material coats and surrounds the higher-standing bedrock of the peak. There are additional exposures of bedrock in the northern wall-terraces of the crater.

Previous HiRISE images have focused largely on central structures, but clearly the wall-terraces of these craters may also be informative in our exploration of the Martian subsurface.

The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 25.8 centimeters (10.2 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning); objects on the order of 77 centimeters (30.3 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:

2018-10-01

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter</b< PR image of Curiosity near the base of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater. Color/processing variant.

2017-06-20

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter PR image of part of Ladon Basin on Mars. Color/processing variant.

Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22183

Original caption: Ladon Basin was a large impact structure that was filled in by the deposits from Ladon Valles, a major ancient river on Mars as seen in this image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

These wet sediments were altered into minerals such as various clay minerals. Clays imply chemistry that may have been favorable for life on ancient Mars, if anything lived there, so this could be a good spot for future exploration by rovers and perhaps return of samples to Earth.

The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 52.1 centimeters (20.5 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 156 centimeters (61.4 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 image of sand dunes on Mars in the Meridiani Planum region.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter PR image of the Phoenix lander (which landed in 2008), seen in late 2017. Color/processing variant.

Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22223

Original caption: This animation blinks back and forth between two images taken nearly a decade apart of NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander and related hardware around the mission's May 25, 2008, landing site on far-northern Mars. By late 2017, dust had obscured much of what was visible two months after the landing.

Both images were taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The one with three patches of darker ground -- where landing events removed dust -- was taken on July 20, 2008. It is Fig. 1, an excerpt of HiRISE observation PSP_009290_2485. The one with a more even coating of pale dust throughout the area was taken on Dec. 21, 2017. It is Fig. 2, an excerpt of HiRISE observation ESP_053451_2485. Both cover an area roughly 300 meters wide at 68 degrees north latitude, 234 degrees east longitude, and the two are closely matched in viewing and illumination geometry, from about five Martian years apart in northern hemisphere summers.

The animation comparing the two images shows a number of changes between mid-2008 and late 2017. The lander (top) appears darker, and is now covered by dust. The dark spot created by the heat shield impact (right) is brighter, again due to dust deposition. The back shell and parachute (bottom) shows a darker parachute and brighter area of impact disturbance, thanks again to deposits of dust. We also see that the parachute has shifted in the wind, moving to the east.

In August 2008, Phoenix completed its three-month mission studying Martian ice, soil and atmosphere. The lander worked for two additional months before reduced sunlight caused energy to become insufficient to keep the lander functioning. The solar-powered robot was not designed to survive through the dark and cold conditions of a Martian arctic winter.

The University of Arizona, Tucson, led the Phoenix mission and also operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, managed the Phoenix Mars Lander Project and manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space, Denver, built both the Phoenix and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.

Image Credit:

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Image Addition Date:

2018-02-20

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of sand dunes on a textured surface in a polar region (I don't recall seeing which pole in the original caption but suspect it's the north polar region) on Mars.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of the rover Curiosity in Gale Crater. I haven't been able to find Curiosity in this image yet...

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter PR image of cataracts in Kasei Valles on Mars.

Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21869

Original caption: Cataracts are large landforms, and this oblique image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter covers only a small area of the innermost channel. The ridged material on the channel floor may be a lava flow that followed this channel after it was initially carved by giant floods of water.Obviously these are not the kind of cataracts that can develop in the lenses of your eyes, but large erosional scallops that form in river channels, like the Niagara Falls draining the Great Lakes of North America.

Obviously these are not the kind of cataracts that can develop in the lenses of your eyes, but large erosional scallops that form in river channels, like the Niagara Falls draining the Great Lakes of North America.

The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 28.7 centimeters (11.3 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning); objects on the order of 86 centimeters (33.9 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.

This is a stereo pair with PSP_002814_2055.

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

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter</b< PR image of Curiosity near the base of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater. Color/processing variant.

2017-06-20

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of mounds in Chryse Planitia.

Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22682

Original caption: This image was acquired on May 15, 2018 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This observation shows relatively bright mounds scattered throughout darker and diverse surfaces in Chryse Planitia. These mounds are hundreds of meters in size. The largest of the mounds shows a central pit, similar to the collapsed craters found at the summit of some volcanoes on Earth. The origins of these pitted mounds or cratered cones are uncertain. They could be the result of the interaction of lava and water, or perhaps formed from the eruption of hot mud originating from beneath the surface.

These features are very interesting to scientists who study Mars, especially to those involved in the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter mission. If these mounds are indeed mud-related, they may be one of the long sought after sources for transient methane on Mars.

The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 60.5 centimeters (23.8 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 181 centimeters (71.3 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:

2018-09-04

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a crater near Dorsa Argenta with lots of dark blotches.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a pit in Labyrinthus Noctis.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter/Mars Express/Mars Global Surveyor PR image and data showing the relative elevations in Jezero Crater, and ancient and very much dried up lake bed that was originally a crater on Mars. The circle shows the intended landing ellipse for Perseverance in February of 2021. Color/processing variant.

Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23511

Original caption: Lighter colors represent higher elevation in this image of Jezero Crater on Mars, the landing site for NASA's Mars 2020 mission. The oval indicates the landing ellipse, where the rover will be touching down on Mars. The color added to this image helps the crater rim stand out clearly, and makes it easier to spot the shoreline of a lake that dried up billions of years ago.

Scientists want to visit this shoreline because it may have preserved fossilized microbial life, if any ever formed on Mars.

The image was created using data from a combination of instruments and spacecraft: NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and its Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA); NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and its Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) and Context Camera (CTX); and the European Space Agency's Mars Express and its High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC).

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, led the work to build the CRISM instrument and operates CRISM in coordination with an international team of researchers from universities, government and the private sector. Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego built and operates CTX. MOLA was built and operated by a team headed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Image Credit:

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL/ESA

Image Addition Date:

2019-11-12

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of blue sand dunes in Melas Chasma. The color is blue because the image is infrared (which, if you look at that statement from a purely vocabulary-level, makes no sense whatsoever). Color/processing variant.

Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22783

Original caption: This color-infrared image shows sand dunes in Melas Chasma, located within the Valles Marineris canyon system. The dark-blue and purple colors indicate coarse-grained sands that are comprised of basalt, an iron and magnesium-rich volcanic rock that formed from cooled lava millions of years ago when volcanism was an active process on Mars.

Migrating sand dunes often lead to the erosion and excavation of underlying material; regions where there are active dune fields are ideal places to search for exposed bedrock. Repeated imaging of dunes may also show changes that provide evidence for active surface processes related to wind patterns and climate.

The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 26.5 centimeters (10.4 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning); objects on the order of 79 centimeters (31.1 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

Edited PR image of layers stacked up on the floor of an impact crater on Mars. Processing variant.

Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09578

Original caption: This HiRISE image shows a stack of layers on the floor of an impact crater roughly 30 km across. Many of the layers appear to be extremely thin, and barely resolved.

In broad view, it is clear that the deposit is eroding into a series of ridges, likely due to the wind. Below the ridges, additional dark-toned layered deposits crop out. These exhibit a variety of textures, some of which may be due to transport of material.

The light ridges are often capped by thin dark layers, and similar layers are exposed on the flanks of the ridges. These layers are likely harder than the rest of the material, and so armor the surface against erosion. They are shedding boulders which roll down the slope, as shown in the subimage (figure 1). Although these cap layers are relatively resistant, the boulders do not seem to accumulate at the base of the slope, so it is likely that they also disintegrate relatively quickly.

The subimage shown is 250 meters wide. The light is from the left. Boulders can be seen on the slopes of the ridges along with thin dark layers including the cap layer, but they are absent on the spurs where the resistant cover has been eroded. This demonstrates that the boulders come only from the dark layers, and are not embedded in the rest of the deposit.

Observation Geometry

Image PSP_001503_1645 was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on 21-Nov-2006. The complete image is centered at -15.3 degrees latitude, 89.7 degrees East longitude. The range to the target site was 256.3 km (160.2 miles). At this distance the image scale is 25.6 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~77 cm across are resolved. The image shown here has been map-projected to 25 cm/pixel and north is up. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 03:35 PM and the scene is illuminated from the west with a solar incidence angle of 62 degrees, thus the sun was about 28 degrees above the horizon. At a solar longitude of 138.7 degrees, the season on Mars is Northern Summer.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the instrument was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo.

Image Credit:

NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona

Image Addition Date:

2007-01-24

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a candidate landing site for the Mars 2020 rover. Two images of the same general area were taken, probably to derive a 3D stereo pair to look for obnoxious boulders that may make a mess of things upon landing.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a secondary crater (a crater created when ejecta from the primary crater impacts onto a surface, in this case, Mars) on Mars that resulted in a splash.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of Swiss cheese terrain near the Martian south pole.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of shadows cast by the wall of the caldera of Olympus Mons.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter PR image of colorful streaks running down a crater on Mars. Color/processing variant.

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter PR image of dark (even darker after I got a hold of the image) streaks down a slope on Mars.

Image source: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22240

Original caption: This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows streaks forming on slopes when dust cascades downhill. The dark streak is an area of less dust compared to the brighter and reddish surroundings. What triggers these avalanches is not known, but might be related to sudden warming of the surface.

These streaks are often diverted by the terrain they flow down. This one has split into many smaller streaks where it encountered minor obstacles.

These streaks fade away over decades as more dust slowly settles out of the Martian sky.

The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 28.1 centimeters (11.1 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning); objects on the order of 84 centimeters (33.1 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:

2018-02-05

Edited Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of "The Niagara Falls of Mars".

Image source: hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_050406_1585

Original caption: Various researchers are often pre-occupied with the quest for flowing water on Mars. However, in this image, we see one of many examples from Mars where lava (when it was molten) behaved in a similar fashion to liquid water.

In a 3D image from the Context Camera, we can see the northern rim of a 30-kilometer diameter crater situated in the western part of the Tharsis volcanic province. (See our own 3D image as well.) The image shows that a lava flow coming from the north-northeast surrounded the crater rim, and rose to such levels that it breached the crater rim at four locations to produce spectacular multi-level lava falls (one in the northwest and three in the north). These lava “falls” cascaded down the wall and terraces of the crater to produce a quasi-circular flow deposit. It seems that the flows were insufficient to fill or even cover the pre-existing deposits of the crater floor. This is evidenced by the darker-toned lavas that overlie the older, and possibly dustier, lighter-toned deposits on the crater floor.

Our image covers the three falls in the north-central region of the crater wall. The lava flows and falls are distinct as they are rougher than the original features that are smooth and knobby. In a close-up image the rough-textured lava flow to the north has breached the crater wall at a narrow point, where it then cascades downwards, fanning out and draping the steeper slopes of the wall in the process.

Now, if you’re thinking such as scene can only be observed on another planet, here’s a beautiful snapshot of lava falls from the 1969 Mauna Ulu eruption in Hawaii.

Written by: Eric Pilles and Livio L. Tornabene (26 June 2017)

This is a stereo pair with ESP_050472_1585.