MARCI weather report, May 20-26, 2019

Posted on May 29, 2019 by rburnham

MARCI-May-21-2019Last week on Mars, water ice clouds and small dust-lifting events continued to be observed along the retreating seasonal north polar ice cap edge. Near the end of the week, larger pulses of dust activity were spotted over the plains of Arcadia and Acidalia. Dusty conditions persisted for many areas of the southern hemisphere as short-lived dust storms cropped up along the margins of the developing south polar hood… [More at link, including video]

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Curiosity: Return to Woodland Bay

Posted on May 29, 2019 by rburnham

2420-navcamASol 2420, May 28, 2019. Two sets of Curiosity wheel tracks are visible at right in this Navcam composite view. Mission scientists commanded the rover to return to a possible drill site, the layered outcrop dubbed Woodland Bay (circled), first examined back on Sol 2359 (March 26, 2019). Click the image to enlarge it.

Sol 2420 raw images (from all cameras).

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HiRISE: The floor of a crater in the Phlegra region

Posted on May 29, 2019 by rburnham

ESP_054904_2075The floor of a crater in the Phlegra region. The objective of this observation is to examine this crater floor that not only cracks in it, but also what looks like lava piled up in one area.

HiRISE Picture of the Day archive. [More at links]

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THEMIS: Herschel Crater floor in false color

Posted on May 29, 2019 by rburnham

Herschel Crater floor in false color (THEMIS_IOTD_20190529)THEMIS Image of the Day, May 29, 2019. This false color image shows part of the floor of Herschel Crater.

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.

Explore more THEMIS Images of the Day by geological subject.

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HiRISE: Hephaestus Fossae pits

Posted on May 28, 2019 by rburnham

ESP_054906_2020-2Hephaestus Fossae pits. The Hephaestus Fossae are a system of troughs and channels that are about 604 kilometers in length. The fossae have been tentatively identified as outflow channels, but their origin and evolution remain ambiguous.

HiRISE Picture of the Day archive. [More at links]

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10 things you didn’t know about Mars

Posted on May 28, 2019 by rburnham

Ten_things_you_did_not_know_about_Mars_4._Atmosphere_escape_fullwidth

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Curiosity update: Easy driving

Posted on May 28, 2019 by rburnham

NRB_611980678EDR_F0752332NCAM00272M_-br2Sols 2419-21, May 28, 2019, update by MSL scientist Dawn Sumner: We’ve left multiple tracks across the cobblestone plain of Glen Torridon. This image shows our current view to the northeast, with the slope of Mount Sharp on the right and the scarp of Vera Rubin Ridge on the left. Curiosity had a nice, long drive retracing our path back toward the southwest where we want to look at some rock layers in more detail. It’s always nice to look back on an area that taught you a lot while heading forward to answer new questions.

Today, we planned another 3 sols of activities for Curiosity. We start off sol 2419 with Mastcam images of “Scolty Bay” and “Tomintoul,” both of which we imaged on our way east on sols 2385 and 2363, respectively. We follow up with ChemCam analyses and Mastcam documentation images of “Hillhead”… [More at link]

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THEMIS: Noachis Terra crater floor

Posted on May 28, 2019 by rburnham

Noachis Terra in false color (THEMIS_IOTD_20190528)THEMIS Image of the Day, May 28, 2019. Today’s image shows the floor of an unnamed crater in Noachis Terra.

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.

Explore more THEMIS Images of the Day by geological subject.

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Europe to Mars — and back!

Posted on May 27, 2019 by rburnham

Europe has been in orbit around Mars for more than 15 years and is almost a year away from launching its first rover mission, but ambitions are already running high to go one step further: returning a sample from the Red Planet.

Has there ever been life on Mars? Reconstructing the history of our neighbouring planet and understanding how its evolution diverged from that of Earth is at the heart of Mars exploration missions.

ESA’s first journey on this quest began 16 years ago – on 2 June 2003, with the launch of Mars Express. The orbiter has imaged almost all of the planet’s surface to date and continues to return a wealth of scientific data, including evidence for its wetter past. And where there was water there may have been life… [More at link]

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Tectonic evolution of Juventae Chasma

Posted on May 27, 2019 by rburnham

figure_1b[Editor’s note: From a paper by Ranjan Sarkar and four co-authors recently published in Icarus.]

Tectonic Evolution of Juventae Chasma, Mars, and the Deformational and Depositional Structural Attributes of the Four Major Light-toned Rock Exposures Therein

• Juventae Chasma is a merger of a chaos and a chasm
• The chaos component formed first in response to Early Hesperian compression
• The chasm-component formed next in response to Middle to Late Amazonian extension
• Features A–D are layered at <2 m scale
• An eolian origin fits best for Features A, C, and D; whereas a lacustrine or low-energy eolian origin is more fitting for Feature B
• Features A–D also record the Early Hesperian compressional event in the form of joints — indicating their existence prior to chasm formation

Juventae Chasma, a canyon peripheral to the Valles Marineris trough system, is the product of a unique merger of a Martian chaotic terrain depression and an extensional (tectonic) chasm. The chaotic terrain portion is set along a NNE-SSW axis, while a linear trough (the chasm component) is present along a WNW-ESE axis. Within the chasm are four discrete bodies of layered, light-toned rocks of sedimentary origin, Features A–D…  [More at link]

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