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- Aeolis Serpens, Mars’ longest sinuous ridge, is an ancient riverbed
- Most deltas on Mars created by short, catastrophic floods
- Are brines actually needed to make recurring slope lineae flow?
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- Gale’s winds sculpted the Mt. Sharp mound as they built it
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- CRISM: Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars
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Tag Archives: HiRISE
Aeolis Serpens, Mars’ longest sinuous ridge, is an ancient riverbed
A linear ridge that winds for more than 200 kilometers (120 miles) through part of South Australia was a river channel roughly 10 million years ago. After the paleoriver stopped flowing, silica-rich groundwater seeped into the riverbed, cementing its sediments. … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged Aeolis Dorsa, Aeolis Serpens, climate, CTX, fluvial channels, fluvial landforms, groundwater, HiRISE, Medusae Fossae formation, sinuous ridge, water
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Are brines actually needed to make recurring slope lineae flow?
Recurring slope lineae (RSL) are finger-like dark lines on steep slopes that appear and grow longer during the warmest time of year, then fade and disappear over winter. They repeat the following Mars year in the same places. While scientists … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged atmosphere, climate, climate change, Context Camera, CTX, HiRISE, ice, lineae, LPSC 2013, Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, recurrent slope lineae, recurring slope lineae, RSL, TES, Thermal Emission Imaging System, Thermal Emission Spectrometer, water
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Dust drifts: new windblown feature on Mars?
Mars has ample loose material blowing around on its surface, a fact which has been known and studied for decades and more. However scientists have paid little attention to sedimentary deposits of dust. New work using detailed images from the … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged dunes, dust, eolian, HiRISE, LPSC 2013, Mars Exploration Rovers, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MER, wind
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Icy jets erupt from north polar dunes in spring
Jets of gas erupting in the springtime from beneath slabs of carbon dioxide ice at the Martian south pole was a dramatic finding in 2006. It explained the mysterious “spiders” which came and went each year. Now the same mechanism … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged atmosphere, CO2 ice, dunes, HiRISE, LPSC 2013, north polar sand sea, sand dunes
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Gale Crater’s Lake District
Mars rover Curiosity landed on, or just beyond, the far end of an alluvial fan — rocks, gravel, and sand washed down by the Peace River from the north rim of Gale Crater. The rover has driven for 200 sols … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged alluvial fan, climate change, Crater Lake, craters, Curiosity, Gale Crater, HiRISE, LPSC 2013, MSL, water
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Blowing sand and moving dunes in Gale Crater
Curiosity, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory rover, is exploring the floor of Gale Crater. Its main science target, however, is the giant stack of water-altered sediments that make up Mount Sharp, Gale Crater’s central mound. But to reach the mound, the … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged Curiosity, dunes, Gale Crater, HiRISE, Mars Science Laboratory, sand, sand dunes, sand ripples, wind
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Hardened arteries in Nili and Nilo
Water seeping through conduits and cracks in the deep subsurface rocks of Nilosyrtis and Nili Fossae left behind minerals, like hard-water deposits that collect in the plumbing of your house. (Or cholesterol in your arteries.) Then as the softer rocks … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged clay minerals, cracks, CTX, Curiosity, fractures, Gale Crater, groundwater, gypsum, HiRISE, Mars Exploration Rovers, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MSL, Nili Fossae, Nilosyrtis, Opportunity, phyllosilicates, water
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Lava flows resurfaced crater lakes after water was gone
Fire and water didn’t mix when it came to resurfacing basins that lie along Martian fluvial valley networks. A study of some 30 open-basin lakes (paleolakes) with floors covered by lava flows has concluded that at least these basins were … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged CRISM, CTX, Gusev Crater, HiRISE, HRSC, lava flows, Mars Exploration Rovers, OMEGA, open-basin lakes, paleolakes, Spirit, TES, THEMIS
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Not-so-everlasting hills
When the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit reached the top of Husband Hill in the Columbia Hills of Gusev Crater on August 22, 2005, it stood 107 meters (351 feet) above its landing site. Yet if recent work is right, the … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged Columbia Hills, Gusev Crater, HiRISE, Husband Hill, Mars Exploration Rovers, MER, Navcam, Pancam, Spirit
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Hesperian lava floods thicker than previously thought
A study examining layered “megablocks” of lava in the central parts of Mars craters concludes that flood lavas in the Hesperian epoch were at least 23 percent thicker than previously known. The research says this shows there has been more … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged climate, HiRISE, lava flows, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, THEMIS
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