Catherine Weitz, a senior scientist at the Tucson-based Planetary Science Institute, has reported new evidence for multiple, water-related geologic processes on Mars.
She and her colleagues studied light-toned deposits (LTDs) within troughs of the Noctis Labyrinthus region in western Valles Marineris using data gathered by three Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) instruments: the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, the Context Camera (CTX) and the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM).
Weitz presented the research results today during a morning session of the American Geophysical Union Conference in San Francisco, Calif.
“We analyzed ten troughs containing well-exposed LTDs, and we found a lot of variability that we didn’t expect to see,” she said. “We found that each of the troughs with LTDs has a unique mineralogy, and, therefore, the processes occurring in each trough were very localized.”
Trough Deposits on Mars Point to Complex Hydrologic Past Planetary Science Institute
NASA Finally Resurrects Sick Mars Orbiter
NASA has finally revived its most powerful Mars orbiter from its months-long slumber due to a computer glitch.
The spacecraft, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, slipped into a protective “safe mode” in late August, stalling its science observations but safeguarding the $720 million probe from further damage. Instead of rousing the orbiter within a few days, as in past glitches, NASA engineers spent months trying to find the source of the probe’s inexplicable computer rebooting malfunctions.
“The patient is out of danger, but more steps have to be taken to get it back on its feet,” said Jim Erickson, the spacecraft’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
Phoenix in Winter
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured winter images of NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander surrounded by dry-ice frost on Mars.
As the sun began to reappear on the horizon following the deepest, darkest days of north polar winter on Mars, the HiRISE camera imaged the Phoenix landing site on July 30, 2009, (left image) and in Aug. 22, 2009 (right).
The sun was only 1 degree above the horizon when the July image was taken at approximately 2 p.m. local Martian time. In the August image the sun was six degrees above the horizon when the image was taken at about 1:44 p.m., Martian time.
By matching up the images with the known location of the Lander, the HiRISE team identified the hardware, disguised by frost, despite the fact that the views were hindered by poor lighting and atmospheric haze, which often obscures the Martian surface at this location and season.
Water Found (And Lost) On Mars
Researchers have caught Martian water ice in the midst of a triply amazing disappearing act. Why triply amazing? The ice was spotted amazingly close to the Red Planet’s surface, and amazingly far away from the north pole. The third amazing thing about the observations, made using NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and reported in Friday’s issue of the journal Science, is that the researchers knew it was 99 percent pure water ice because of how slowly it disappeared.
Stunning new image of Mars show half-mile wide crater complete with sand dunes Daily Mail
It is one of the most dramatic images to ever emerge from Mars.
In fact, this extraordinary photograph is so clear that even the sand dunes at the base of the half-mile wide canyon are visible.
Experts even believe that they can see the tracks of a Mars lander on the left-hand corner of the Victoria Crater.
Weather Movie, Mars South Polar Region, March-April 2009
This movie shows the southern high-latitudes region of Mars from March 19 through April 14, 2009, a period when regional dust storms occurred along the retreating edge of carbon-dioxide frost in the seasonal south polar cap. Compared with a full-hemisphere view, this view shows more details of where the dust clouds formed and how they moved around the planet.
The movie combines hundreds of images from the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
HiRISE Stereo, Color Images Detail Mars Terrain that Tantalizes Explorers University of Arizona
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, has returned more than 8,214 gigapixel-size images of the Martian surface since the start of the science phase of the mission in November 2006.
HiRISE scientists released 1,005 observations of Mars made between April 26 and July 21 to NASA’s mission data archive, called the Planetary Data System, and also to the public last week.
The new images, a total 3.4 terabytes of data, can be found on the HiRISE Web site.
The HiRISE team has so far released a total 26.9 terabytes of data in more than 7,100 observations with 718,000 different image products derived from those observations, said HiRISE operations manager Eric Eliason of The University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.
That amounts to more data than has been released by all previous deep space missions combined. The image products include color images and stereo pairs, as well as monochrome images.
“If I showed each HiRISE image for 10 seconds, it would take me about 4 years to show them all,” said UA’s Alfred McEwen, HiRISE principal investigator.
Despite this massive data volume, HiRISE images cover less than four-fifths of one percent of the area of the planet.
Mars Lander Pulls All-Nighter
NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander pulled an all-nighter for the first time Monday.
Mission controllers extended the spacecraft’s schedule to keep it awake during the Martian night so the lander could coordinate with observations made by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) as it flew over Phoenix.
Phoenix is using its weather station (which measures temperature, wind speed and wind direction), stereo camera and fork-like thermal and conductivity probe to monitor changes in the lower atmosphere and at the surface of Mars as MRO monitors the atmosphere and ground from above.
Camera On Mars Orbiter Snaps Phoenix During Landing ScienceDaily
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.
Avalanche Photographed on Mars
NASA spacecraft has taken the first-ever image of an avalanche in action near Mars’ north pole.
The High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took the photograph Feb. 19. The image, released today, shows tan clouds billowing away from the foot of a towering slope, where ice and dust have just cascaded down.
The camera was tracking seasonal changes on Mars when it inadvertently caught the avalanche on film.
HiRISE mission scientist Ingrid Daubar Spitale of the University of Arizona was the first person to notice the avalanche when sifting through images.