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- 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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Tag Archives: groundwater
THEMIS: Atlantis Chaos false color
THEMIS Image of the Day, December 23, 2014. 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 … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged Arizona State University, ASU, Atlantis Chaos, chaotic terrain, color, groundwater, Mars Odyssey, NASA, THEMIS, Thermal Emission Imaging System, water
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Meteoritic evidence of Mars water reservoir
NASA and an international team of planetary scientists have found evidence in meteorites on Earth that indicates Mars has a distinct and global reservoir of water or ice near its surface. Though controversy still surrounds the origin, abundance and history … Continue reading
Gale Crater’s icy hydrological cycle
Gale Crater was once home to glaciers and other features of an icy hydrological system, says a team of scientists led by Alberto Fairén (Centro de Astrobiología in Spain and Cornell University). They base their work on images captured with the … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged Aeolis Mons, CTX, Curiosity, Gale Crater, glaciers, groundwater, HiRISE, HRSC, liquid water, Mars Express, Mars Science Laboratory, Mount Sharp, MSL, NASA, water
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Recurring slope lineae discovered deep in Valles Marineris
Discovered in 2011, recurring slope lineae (RSL for short) are narrow, dark lines on steep slopes. They appear and grow longer during the warmest time of year, then fade and disappear over winter. They recur in the same places the … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged brine seeps, brines, brines, CRISM, ground ice, groundwater, HiRISE, ice, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, recurring slope lineae, RSL, Valles Marineris, water
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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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Megaflood carved a valley in a week
Morella Crater is an ancient impact scar 78 kilometers (49 miles) across that sits barely 5 km (3 mi) away from the southern edge of the large canyon, Ganges Chasma. Roughly 3 billion years ago, groundwater filled Morella Crater with … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged channels, Crater Lake, Elaver Vallis, Ganges Cavus, Ganges Chasma, groundwater, megaflood, Morella Crater, outflow channels, 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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Ancient Mars biosphere: deep underground?
Something like half of Earth’s entire biomass lies underground in the form of microorganisms living off geothermal heat and chemicals in the crustal rocks. Could the same hold true for Mars, now or in bygone times? If so, it’s hard … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged biosphere, carbonate minerals, clay minerals, CRISM, groundwater, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, McLaughlin Crater, MGS, microorganisms, TES, THEMIS, Thermal Emission Spectrometer
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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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