THEMIS Image of the Day, May 25, 2017. Today’s false color image shows part of the plains and craters in Terra Sirenum.
The THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image.
More THEMIS Images of the Day by geological topic.
Sol 1707-08, May 25, 2017, update by MSL scientist
This image shows part of the central uplifted region of an impact crater more than 50 kilometers wide. That means that the bedrock has been raised from a depth of about 5 kilometers, exposing ancient materials.
The warm (yellowish-reddish) colors mark the presence of minerals altered by water, whereas the bluish and greenish rocks have escaped alteration. Sharp-crested ridges and smooth areas are young windblown materials. [More at link]
For the past week on Mars, arcuate-shaped dust storms and water-ice clouds continued to propagate eastward along the northern seasonal ice cap edge. A few transient dust storms were spotted over Utopia Planitia associated with polar activity. Looking to the southern highlands, local-scale dust storms repeatedly swept over southern Aonia and south of Argyre, sending dust hazes east, past Promethei. Diffuse water-ice clouds… [More at link, including video]
Sol 1705, May 24, 2017. Navcam shows the way through a field of rounded sedimentary rocks like eroded speedbumps. At right, the arrow points to Curiosity’s position on the approach to Vera Rubin Ridge (bottom). Click images to enlarge them.
Sol 1705 raw images (from all cameras), and Curiosity’s latest location.
The inquiry into the crash-landing of the ExoMars Schiaparelli module has concluded that conflicting information in the onboard computer caused the descent sequence to end prematurely.
The Schiaparelli entry, descent and landing demonstrator module separated from its mothership, the Trace Gas Orbiter, as planned on 16 October last year, and coasted towards Mars for three days.
Much of the six-minute descent on 19 October went as expected: the module entered the atmosphere correctly, with the heatshield protecting it at supersonic speeds. Sensors on the front and back shields collected useful scientific and engineering data on the atmosphere and heatshield. (…)
The report summary can be downloaded here. [More at links]
THEMIS Image of the Day, May 24, 2017. Today’s false color image shows part of the plains of Terra Cimmeria.
The THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image.
More THEMIS Images of the Day by geological topic.
Ongoing dune activity in Ganges Chasma. Beautiful Mars series.
These small ripples, about 10 meters apart, are located in Her Desher Vallis. Her Desher is a small channel that shows evidence of phyllosilicates—silicates with a sheet-like structure, such as clay minerals.
Much larger images of this area show that Her Desher Vallis appears isolated, with no obvious connections to craters or larger valleys. Her Desher, the ancient Egyptian name for Mars, translates to “the Red One.”
Sol 1705-06, May 22, 2017, update by MSL scientist
We didn’t drive as far as we thought we would over the weekend. Software onboard Curiosity sensed the rover was struggling to travel over the challenging terrain more than we had anticipated… [More at link]
