Tag Archives: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

HiRISE: Seeing through the dusty air

Mars has been enveloped in dusty haze, but the sensitivity of HiRISE enables imaging of surface features through a moderate level of haze. This image shows a fresh impact crater in the northern middle latitudes. A technique called “pixel binning” … Continue reading

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HiRISE: Sand sea monitoring

Sand sea monitoring. This ocean of dunes is located within central Juventae Chasma. Beautiful Mars series. [More at links]

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HiRISE: Stratified deposits in Crommelin Crater

Stratified deposits in Crommelin Crater. This target contains light-toned deposits, a key area to investigate the geometrical and geological relationship between the central bulge and the partially sediment-covered crater floor. Also: swirls! Beautiful Mars series. [More at links]

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HiRISE: Channels and ripples along crater walls

Channels and ripples along crater walls. From the science rationale: “We would like a HiRISE image of the selected area to look for evidence of both fluvial and aeolian processes on the crater wall. Specifically, we are looking for channels … Continue reading

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HiRISE: Rubicon Valles

Rubicon Valles. We dare you to cross this! Beautiful Mars series. [More at links]

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MARCI weather report, September 3-9, 2018

Slightly hazy conditions continued across many regions of Mars last week. Near the start and end of the week, a couple small dust lifting events occurred over the low-latitudes of Noachis Terra. Looking to the eastern hemisphere, a transient local-scale … Continue reading

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HiRISE: Hanging sand dunes in Coprates Chasma

Dune fields located among canyon wall slopes are also known as “wall dune fields” and are further identified as either climbing or falling. Falling dunes are defined as large bedforms with lee faces on the downhill side—indicating that this is … Continue reading

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HiRISE: Fan with inverted channels

This image shows inverted channels within a fan whose origin could be either fluvial (produced by the action of a stream) or alluvial (created by sedimentary deposits). If the fan is alluvial, then it formed on dry land. If the … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, Aug 27-Sept 2, 2018

Dusty atmospheric conditions resulting from the planetary-encircling dust event continued to wane across much of Mars for the past week. Looking to the equatorial latitudes, a couple short-lived dust events were observed over North Central Noachis Terra. Further west, dust … Continue reading

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HiRISE: Pitted cones: possible methane sources?

This observation shows relatively bright mounds scattered throughout darker and diverse surfaces in Chryse Planitia. These mounds are hundreds of meters in size. The largest of the mounds shows a central pit, similar to the collapsed craters found at the … Continue reading

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