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mission instruments
- CRISM: Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars
- CTX: Context Camera
- HiRISE: High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment
- MARSIS: Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding
- SHARAD: Shallow Radar
- THEMIS: Thermal Emission Imaging System
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- Hope (al-Amal) orbiter
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- Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN)
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- Mars Express (MEX)
- Mars Odyssey
- Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) / Mangalyaan
- Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
- Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
- Perseverance Rover
- Tianwen-1 orbiter/rover
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Tag Archives: CTX
Mars dust devils travel much faster than surface winds blow
Extending earlier work, a team of Mars scientists led by Dennis Reiss (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Germany) has made simultaneous (or near-) observations of dust devil speeds using cameras on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The cameras include CRISM, CTX, and HiRISE. The … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged atmosphere, CRISM, CTX, Curiosity, dust devils, Gale Crater, HiRISE, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Science Laboratory, MSL
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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.
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, recurring slope lineae, RSL, TES, Thermal Emission Imaging System, Thermal Emission Spectrometer, water
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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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Loess in the lowlands
A team of geologists led by James A. Skinner, Jr. (U.S. Geological Survey) has discovered and mapped a previously unidentified unit in the Martian northern lowlands. The unit appears to give evidence of a major climate shift long ago in … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged atmosphere, climate change, CO2 ice, CTX, loess, MOLA, north polar ice cap, northern plains, THEMIS
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Caverns in the northern lowlands?
Vast quantities of water have poured across the surface of Mars in ages past. The evidence is obvious in dozens of outflow channels, large and small. The waters emerged, scientists think, from subsurface reservoirs when the frozen ground capping them … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged caverns, CTX, groundwater, Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MOLA, THEMIS, water
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Latitude controlled Amazonian ice flows
Signs of underground ice deposited in the Amazonian period (the most recent in Martian history) are common in many places on Mars. Evidence includes tropical mountain glacier deposits, lobate debris aprons, lineated valley fill, concentric crater fill, and pedestal craters. … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged CO2 ice, concentric crater fill, CTX, glaciers, lineated valley fill, lobate debris aprons, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, mountain glaciers
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Slope streaks not becoming more common; survive for decades
Slope streaks are dark lines that run down dusty slopes on Mars; scientists explain them as dust avalanches touched off by rockfalls or some similar trigger. (Slope streaks differ in nature and cause from a different kind of streak, dubbed … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged CTX, LPSC 2012, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, slope streaks, Viking Orbiter
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Pitted deposits in Mars craters point to subsurface ice
Studies of pitted deposits in crater floors appear to indicate that subsurface ice has been more widespread on Mars than previously thought. That’s the conclusion of a team of reseachers led by Livio Tornabene (University of Western Ontario), who reported … Continue reading