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'Happy Face' Crater
title 'Happy Face' Crater
date 03.10.1999
description Mars Global Surveyor was greeted with this view of 'Happy Face Crater' smiling back at its camera from its location on the east side of Argyre Planitia. This crater is officially known as Galle Crater, and it is about 215 kilometers (134 miles) across. The picture was taken by the MOC's red and blue wide angle cameras. The bluish-white tone is caused by wintertime frost. Illumination is from the upper left. For more information and Viking Orbiter views of "Happy Face Crater," see http://www.msss.com/education/happy_face/happy_face.html. *Image Credit*: NASA
Lunar Prospector in Clean Ro …
Title Lunar Prospector in Clean Room
Full Description The fully assembled Lunar Prospector spacecraft is shown mated atop the Star 37 Trans Lunar Injection module. Lunar Prospector represented the first NASA spacecraft to revisit the Moon in 25 years. In December of 1972 Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt were the last humans to set foot upon the Moon and the last NASA mission to visit the lunar frontier. On January 6, 1998 at 9:28 p.m., Lunar Prospector was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida aboard a Lockheed Martin Athena II rocket. Also onboard were the ash remains of astrogeologist Eugene M. Shoemaker. A scientist from the U.S. Geological Survey, he was detailed to NASA and helped train Apollo astronauts in lunar geology. However, as co- founder of a "rogue string" of comet fragments, his name will forever be linked to the much hearlded Shoemaker-Levy 9 cometary impact of the planet Jupiter in 1995. Lunar Prospector mapped the Moon's elemental composition, gravity fields, magnetic fields and resources. Prospector provided insights into the origin and evolution of the Moon. One of the most significant finds by Lunar Prospector was confirmation that there could be as much as 10 billion tons of subsurface frozen water near the Moon's polar region. The Lunar Prospector mission came to a creative and daring conclusion when on July 31, 1999 at 2:52:00.8 a.m. PDT Mission Control Ames directed the spacecraft to a crash landing into a deep crater near the Moon's South pole. The hope was that the impact might release trapped water vapor. However no visible debris plume was detected by numerous observatories monitoring the event. This lack of direct evidence has not diminished the hope or belief that subsurface frozen water does exist.
Date 01/01/1997
NASA Center Ames Research Center
Mars and Syrtis Major
Title Mars and Syrtis Major
Full Description Taking advantage of Mars's closest approach to Earth in eight years, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have taken the space- based observatory's sharpest views yet of the Red Planet. The telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 snapped these images between April 27 and May 6, when Mars was 54 million miles (87 million kilometers) from Earth. From this distance the telescope could see Martian features as small as 12 miles (19 kilometers) wide. The telescope obtained four images, which, together, show the entire planet. Each view depicts the planet as it completes one quarter of its daily rotation. In these views the north polar cap is tilted toward the Earth and is visible prominently at the top of each picture. The images were taken in the middle of the Martian northern summer, when the polar cap had shrunk to its smallest size. During this season the Sun shines continuously on the polar cap. Previous telescopic and spacecraft observations have shown that this summertime "residual" polar cap is composed of water ice, just like Earth's polar caps. These Hubble telescope snapshots reveal that substantial changes in the bright and dark markings on Mars have occurred in the 20 years since the NASA Viking spacecraft missions first mapped the planet. The Martian surface is dynamic and ever changing. Some regions that were dark 20 years ago are now bright red, some areas that were bright red are now dark. Winds move sand and dust from region to region, often in spectacular dust storms. Over long timescales many of the larger bright and dark markings remain stable, but smaller details come and go as they are covered and then uncovered by sand and dust. The dark feature known as Syrtis Major was first seen telescopically by the astronomer Christiaan Huygens in the 17th century. Many small, dark, circular impact craters can be seen in this region, attesting to the Hubble telescope's ability to reveal fine detail on the planet's surface. To the south of Syrtis is a large circular feature called Hellas. Viking and more recently Mars Global Surveyor have revealed that Hellas is a large and deep impact crater. These Hubble telescope pictures show it to be filled with surface frost and water ice clouds. Along the right limb, late afternoon clouds have formed around the volcano Elysium.
Date 06/30/1999
NASA Center Hubble Space Telescope Center
Evidence for Recent Liquid W …
Title Evidence for Recent Liquid Water on Mars
Full Description Gullies eroded into the wall of a meteor impact crater in Noachis Terra. This high resolution view (top left) from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) shows channels and associated aprons of debris that are interpreted to have formed by groundwater seepage, surface runoff, and debris flow. The lack of small craters superimposed on the channels and apron deposits indicates that these features are geologically young. It is possible that these gullies indicate that liquid water is present within the martian subsurface today. The MOC image was acquired on September 28, 1999. The scene covers an area approximately 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) wide by 6.7 km (4.1 mi) high (note, the aspect ratio is 1.5 to 1.0). Sunlight illuminates this area from the upper left. The image is located near 54.8S, 342.5W. The context image (above) shows the location of the MOC image on the south-facing wall of an impact crater approximately 20 kilometers (12 miles) in diameter. The context picture was obtained by the Viking 1 orbiter in 1980 and is illuminated from the upper left. The large mound on the floor of the crater in the context view is a sand dune field. The Mars Orbiter Camera high resolution images are taken black-and-white (grayscale), the color seen here has been synthesized from the colors of Mars observed by the MOC wide angle cameras and by the Viking Orbiters in the late 1970s. A brief description of how the color was generated: The MOC narrow angle camera only takes grayscale (black and white) pictures. To create the color versions seen here, we have taken much lower resolution red and blue images acquired by the MOC's wide angle cameras, and by the Viking Orbiter cameras in the 1970s, synthesized a green image by averaging red and blue, and created a pallete of colors that represent the range of colors on Mars. We then use a relationship that correlates color and brightness to assign a color to each gray level. This is only a crude approximation of martian color. It is likely Mars would not look like this to a human observer at Mars.
Date 06/22/2000
NASA Center Jet Propulsion Laboratory
A Closer Encounter with Mars
Title A Closer Encounter with Mars
Hubble Shoots the Moon
Title Hubble Shoots the Moon
Hubble Shoots the Moon
Title Hubble Shoots the Moon
A Closer Encounter with Mars
Title A Closer Encounter with Mars
Iturralde Crater with 1999 D …
Title Iturralde Crater with 1999 Data, with labels
Abstract Investigators from Goddard Space Flight Center went to Bolivia to collect data concerning whether or not Iturralde is an impact crater.
Completed 2002-08-28
Iturralde Crater with 1999 D …
Title Iturralde Crater with 1999 Data, with labels
Abstract Investigators from Goddard Space Flight Center went to Bolivia to collect data concerning whether or not Iturralde is an impact crater.
Completed 2002-08-28
Iturralde Crater with 1999 D …
Title Iturralde Crater with 1999 Data, with labels
Abstract Investigators from Goddard Space Flight Center went to Bolivia to collect data concerning whether or not Iturralde is an impact crater.
Completed 2002-08-28
Iturralde Crater, 1999 Data, …
Title Iturralde Crater, 1999 Data, with enhanced contrast, with labels
Abstract Investigators from Goddard Space Flight Center went to Bolivia to collect data concerning whether or not Iturralde is an impact crater.
Completed 2002-08-28
Iturralde Crater, 1999 Data, …
Title Iturralde Crater, 1999 Data, with enhanced contrast, with labels
Abstract Investigators from Goddard Space Flight Center went to Bolivia to collect data concerning whether or not Iturralde is an impact crater.
Completed 2002-08-28
Iturralde Crater, 1999 Data, …
Title Iturralde Crater, 1999 Data, with enhanced contrast, with labels
Abstract Investigators from Goddard Space Flight Center went to Bolivia to collect data concerning whether or not Iturralde is an impact crater.
Completed 2002-08-28
Iturralde Crater with 1999 D …
Title Iturralde Crater with 1999 Data
Abstract Investigators from Goddard Space Flight Center went to Bolivia to collect data concerning whether or not Iturralde is an impact crater.
Completed 2002-08-28
Iturralde Crater with 1999 D …
Title Iturralde Crater with 1999 Data
Abstract Investigators from Goddard Space Flight Center went to Bolivia to collect data concerning whether or not Iturralde is an impact crater.
Completed 2002-08-28
Iturralde Crater, 1999 Data, …
Title Iturralde Crater, 1999 Data, with enhanced contrast
Abstract Investigators from Goddard Space Flight Center went to Bolivia to collect data concerning whether or not Iturralde is an impact crater.
Completed 2002-08-28
Iturralde Crater, 1999 Data, …
Title Iturralde Crater, 1999 Data, with enhanced contrast
Abstract Investigators from Goddard Space Flight Center went to Bolivia to collect data concerning whether or not Iturralde is an impact crater.
Completed 2002-08-28
Colima Volcano Erupts in Mex …
Title Colima Volcano Erupts in Mexico
Description Located roughly 300 miles (485 km) west of Mexico City, Colima Volcano began spewing red-hot rocks down its slopes on February 5, 2002. The volcano had been issuing smoke, ash, and vapor for days prior to the eruption. This true-color image of the ?Volcano of Fire? was acquired on May 13, 1999, by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus, flying aboard Landsat 7. Authorities evacuated the residents of Yerbabuena, a small town located within 25 miles from the volcano. According to volcanologists, there is a huge dome of lava inside the Colima Volcano?s crater that could either collapse or explode, either way sending rivers of molten rock pouring out into the surrounding countryside. Colima volcano is considered to be the most active and, potentially, the most destructive of all nine volcanoes located in central Mexico. Image by Robert Simmon, based on data provided by the Landsat 7 Science Team [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/redirect?http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ]
Aeolian Mars
Title Aeolian Mars
Explanation Mars' [ http://mars.ivv.nasa.gov/resources/mars_data-information/ mars_earth_comp_NSSDC_and.html ]atmosphere is relatively thin, still when martian winds [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990520.html ] blow they weather [ http://learn.jpl.nasa.gov/projectspacef/weather.html ] and shape its surface [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/1_31_00_dunes/index.html ]. Like familiar aeolian [ http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~millerm/DVdune1.html ] features on Earth [ http://ruidoso.net/chamber/outdoors/whitesan.html ], this field of dunes within Mars' Rabe crater exhibits graceful undulating ridges [ http://photo.net/photo/pcd0738/great-sand-dune-ridge-7.tcl ] which can shift as windblown material is deposited on the dunes' windward face and falls away down the steeper leeward slopes. Indicated by the arrow, the dark trails are signs that the martian [ http://amor.rz.hu-berlin.de/~h0444ihv/private/marslit/marsbib.html ] sand has avalanched down the steep slopes in the recent past. Rippling patterns of smaller dunes are also visible in this sharp high-resolution view [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/1_31_00_dunes/ rabe_dunes/index.html ] along with criss-crossing dark trails which may be evidence of local dust-devil [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/8_10_99_releases/ moc2_171/index.html ] windstorms. The image is about 3 kilometers across and was recorded in March of 1999 by the orbiting Mars [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/1_2000_jan1movie/index.html ] Global Surveyor spacecraft.
Light Deposits Indicate Wate …
Title Light Deposits Indicate Water Flowing on Mars
Explanation What's creating light-toned deposits on Mars? Quite possibly -- water! Images of the same parts of mid-latitude Mars [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010628.html ] taken over the years but released [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2006/12/06/gullies/sirenum_crater/index.html ] only last week have shown unexpected new light-toned deposits where there were none before. One clear case is shown above [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09028 ], where the same crater on Mars is shown as photographed in 1999 August and again in 2005 September. The unusual deposit is visible only on the more recent photograph. Apparent tributaries near the bottom bolster the leading hypothesis [ http://planetary.org/blog/article/00000789/ ] that water gushed out of the crater wall, flowed down the crater, and soon evaporated into the thin Martian atmosphere [ http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/M/Marsatmos.html ]. Although frozen water-ice [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050720.html ] has been known near the Martian poles [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap981216.html ] for years, free flowing surface water like this was not expected to be seen in the mid-latitudes of Mars [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars ]. If confirmed, such water springs might make more of Mars hospitable to life [ http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/science/life/ ] and human visitation [ http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/main/index.html ] than previously believed.
The Shadow of Phobos
Title The Shadow of Phobos
Explanation Hurtling through space [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990313.html ] above the Red Planet, potato-shaped Phobos [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/ phobos.html ] completes an orbit of Mars in less than eight hours. In fact, since its orbital period is shorter than the planet's [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/ marsfact.html ] rotation period, Mars-based observers [ http://www.literature.org/authors/burroughs-edgar-rice/ the-warlord-of-mars/ ] see Phobos rise in the west and set in the east - traveling from horizon to horizon in about 5 1/2 hours. These three images [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/11_1_99_phobos/ index.html ] from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft [ http://ic-www.arc.nasa.gov/ic/projects/bayes-group/ Atlas/Mars/VSC/views/entrance/entrance.html ] record the oval shadow [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990830.html ] of Phobos racing over western Xanthe Terra on August 26, 1999. The area imaged is about 250 kilometers across and is seen in panels from left to right as red filter, blue filter, and combined color composite views from the MGS wide-angle camera system. The three dark spots most easily seen in the red filter image are likely small fields of dark sand dunes [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010815.html ] on crater floors. Standing in the shadow of Phobos [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/mars/mars_crew.html ], you would see the Martian version [ http://humbabe.arc.nasa.gov/mgcm/fun/pop.html ] of a solar eclipse!
The Shadow of Phobos
Title The Shadow of Phobos
Explanation Hurtling through space [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990313.html ]above the Red Planet, potato-shaped Phobos [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/ phobos.html ] completes an orbit of Mars in less than eight hours. In fact, since its orbital period is shorter than the planet's [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/ marsfact.html ] rotation period, Mars-based observers [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06337 ] see Phobos rise in the west and set in the east - traveling from [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06340 ] horizon to horizon in about 5 1/2 hours. These three images [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/11_1_99_phobos/ index.html ] from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft [ http://ic-www.arc.nasa.gov/ic/projects/bayes-group/ Atlas/Mars/VSC/views/entrance/entrance.html ] record the oval shadow [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990830.html ] of Phobos racing over western Xanthe Terra on August 26, 1999. The area imaged is about 250 kilometers across and is seen in panels from left to right as red filter, blue filter, and combined color composite views from the MGS wide-angle camera system. The three dark spots most easily seen in the red filter image are likely small fields of dark sand dunes [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010815.html ] on crater floors. Standing in the shadow of Phobos [ http://cmex-www.arc.nasa.gov/CMEX/index.html ], you would see the Martian version [ http://www.literature.org/authors/burroughs-edgar-rice/ the-warlord-of-mars/ ] of a solar eclipse!
Moon Crashers
Title Moon Crashers
Explanation On July 31, 1964, Ranger 7 [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/database/www-nmc?64-041A ] crashed into the Moon. Seventeen minutes before [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990730.html ] impact it snapped this picture - the first image of the Moon [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/html/object_page/ra7_b001.html ] ever taken by a U.S. spacecraft. Of course Ranger 7 was intended to crash, transmitting close-up pictures of the lunar surface during its final moments. The Ranger program's [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/ranger.html ] goal was to begin high resolution mapping of the lunar surface in preparation for a future lunar landing [ http://www.nasm.edu/APOLLO/ ]. This first image covered 360 kilometers from top to bottom and is centered in the Mare [ http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/science/geography_items/mare.html ] Nubium (Sea of Clouds). The large crater at middle right, Alphonsus [ http://lunarprospector.arc.nasa.gov/science/ geography_items/carters/craters_a.html ], is 108 kilometers in diameter. On July 31, 1999, Lunar Prospector crashed [ http://www.lunarimpact.com/ ] into the Moon. During its successful 1 year mission to map the Moon's global properties from orbit, Lunar Prospector confirmed indications that water-ice [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/ice/ice_moon.html ] could be trapped in permanently shadowed craters near the lunar poles. Its mission complete, controllers intentionally targeted [ http://science.nasa.gov/current/event/ast04jun99_2.htm ] the spacecraft to impact a crater wall, hoping that water could be more directly detected in the resulting debris cloud - although the chances of a successful detection were considered low. Astronomers [ http://www.ae.utexas.edu/~cfpl/lunar/observations.html ] analyzing the data recently announced [ http://www.ae.utexas.edu/~cfpl/lunar/pressrelease/discussion.html ] that no visible signature of water was found, so the tantalizing case for water on the Moon remains open [ http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast13oct99_1.htm ].
The Shadow Of Phobos
Title The Shadow Of Phobos
Explanation Hurtling through space [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990313.html ] above the Red Planet, potato-shaped Phobos [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/phobos.html ] completes an orbit of Mars in less than eight hours. In fact, since its orbital period is shorter than the planet's [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/marsfact.html ] rotation period, Mars-based observers [ http://www.literature.org/authors/burroughs-edgar-rice/ the-warlord-of-mars/ ] see Phobos rise in the west and set in the east - traveling from horizon to horizon in about 5 1/2 hours. These three images [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/11_1_99_phobos/index.html ] from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft [ http://ic-www.arc.nasa.gov/ic/projects/bayes-group/ Atlas/Mars/VSC/views/entrance/entrance.html ] record the oval shadow [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990830.html ] of Phobos racing over western Xanthe Terra on August 26, 1999. The area imaged is about 250 kilometers across and is seen in panels from left to right as red filter, blue filter, and combined color composite views from the MGS wide-angle camera system. The three dark spots most easily seen in the red image are likely [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/11_1_99_phobos/index.html ] small fields of dark sand dunes on crater floors. Standing in the shadow of Phobos [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/mars/mars_crew.html ], you would see the Martian version [ http://humbabe.arc.nasa.gov/mgcm/fun/pop.html ] of a solar eclipse!
Bright Streak on Amalthea
Title Bright Streak on Amalthea
Description These two images of Jupiter's small, irregularly shaped moon Amalthea, obtained by the camera onboard NASA's Galileo spacecraft in August 1999(left) and November 1999 (right), form a "stereo pair" that helps scientists determine this moon's shape and the topography of its surface features. Features as small as 3.8 kilometers (2.4 miles) across can be resolved in these images, making them among the highest-resolution images ever taken of Amalthea. The large impact crater visible in both images, near the right-hand edge of Amalthea's disk, is about 40 kilometers (about 29 miles) across, two ridges, tall enough to cast shadows, extend from the top of the crater in a V-shape reminiscent of a "rabbit ears" television antenna. To the left of these ridges, in the top center portion of Amalthea's disk, is a second large impact crater similar in size to the first crater. To the left of this second crater is a linear "streak" of relatively bright material about 50 kilometers (31 miles) long. In previous spacecraft images of Amalthea taken from other viewing directions, this bright feature was thought to be a small, round, bright "spot" and was given the name Ida. These new images reveal for the first time that Ida is actually a long, linear "streak." This bright streak may represent material ejected during the formation of the adjacent impact crater, or it may just mark the crest of a local ridge. Other patches of relatively bright material can be seen elsewhere on Amalthea's disk, although none of these other bright spots has Ida's linear shape. In both images, sunlight is coming from the left and north is approximately up. Note that the north pole of Amalthea is missing in the right-hand image (it was cut off by the edge of the camera frame). The bright streak, Ida, is on the side of the moon that faces permanently away from Jupiter, and the crater near the right-hand edge of the disk is in the center of Amalthea's leading side (the side of the moon that "leads" as Amalthea moves in its orbit around Jupiter). The images are, from left to right: Amalthea taken on August 12, 1999 at a range of 446,000 kilometers (about 277,000 miles) and on November 26, 1999 at a range of 374,000 kilometers (about 232,000 miles).
Date 04.24.2000
Saturn's outer satellite - P …
Title Saturn's outer satellite - Phoebe
Description Voyager 2 took these images of Saturn's outer satellite Phoebe, on Sept. 4, 1981, from 2.2 million kilometers (1.36 million miles)away. This pair shows two different hemispheres of the satellite. The left image shows a bright mountain on the upper right edge reflecting the light of the setting sun. This mountain is possibly the central peak of a large impact crater taking up most of the upper right quadrant of Phoebe in this view. The right images shows a hemisphere with an intrinsically bright spot in the top portion of the image as well as the ridges appearing bright in the sunset light of the lower right. These images were processed by the Multimission Image Processing Laboratory of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Voyager Project for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications.
Date 12.10.1999
Several Jets and a Crater on …
Title Several Jets and a Crater on Comet Borrelly
Description This image, taken by Deep Space 1 on September 22, 2001, has been enhanced to reveal dust being ejected from the nucleus of comet Borrelly. As a result, the nucleus, which is about eight kilometers (about five miles) long, is bright white in the image. The main dust jet is directed towards the bottom left of the frame, around 35 degrees away from the comet-Sun line. The jet emerges as actually comprised of at least three smaller features. This active region as a whole is at least three kilometers (less than two miles) long. Another, smaller, jet feature is seen on the tip of the nucleus on the lower right-hand limb. Dust also seems to be ejected from there into the night-side hemisphere, probably from the dayside hemisphere. The expansion of the gas and dust mixture into the vacuum of space has swept some material around the body of the nucleus so that it appears above the night-side hemisphere. The night-side of the nucleus could not be seen, of course. The line between day and night on the comet is towards the upper right. This representation shows a faint ring of brightness separated from the terminator by a dark, unlit area. It is possible that this is a crater rim, seen in grazing illumination, which is just about to cross into darkness as the comet rotates. The direction to the Sun is directly downwards. Deep Space 1 completed its primary mission testing ion propulsion and 11 other advanced, high-risk technologies in September 1999. NASA extended the mission, taking advantage of the ion propulsion and other systems to undertake this chancy but exciting, and ultimately successful, encounter with the comet. More information can be found on the Deep Space 1 home page at http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/ . Deep Space 1 was launched in October 1998 as part of NASA's New Millennium Program, which is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA.
Date 09.25.2001
Galileo's Last View of Tvash …
Title Galileo's Last View of Tvashtar, Io
Description This mosaic of Tvashtar Catena on Jupiter's moon Io, taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft on Oct. 16, 2001, completes a series of views depicting changes in the region over a period of nearly two years. A catena is a chain of volcanic craters. Streaks of light and dark deposits that radiate from the central volcanic crater, or "patera," are remnants of a tall plume that was seen erupting in earlier images. This image and the others fromNovember 1999, February 2000 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02584 ],December 2000 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02588 ], andAugust 2001 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02592 ]were all taken to study aspects of this ever-changing, extremely active volcanic field. Tvashtar is pictured here just 10 months after both the Galileo and Cassini spacecraft observed the eruption of a giant plume of volcanic gas emanating from it. The plume rose 385 kilometers (239 miles) high and blanketed terrain as far as 700 kilometers (435 miles) from its center. Tvashtar has erupted in a variety of styles over the course of almost two years: (1) alava curtain [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02519 ]50 kilometers (30 miles) long in the center patera, (2) agiant lava flow or lava lake eruption [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02550 ]in the giant patera at far left, and (3) the largeplume eruption [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02588 ]. Therefore Galileo scientists expected that the lava flow margins or patera boundaries within Tvashtar would have changed drastically. However, the series of observations revealed little modification of this sort, suggesting that the intense eruptions at Tvashtar are confined by the local topography. North is to the top of the mosaic, which is approximately 300 kilometers(186 miles) across and has a resolution of 200 meters (656 feet) per picture element. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Additional information about Galileo and its discoveries is available on the Galileo mission home page athttp://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov [ http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov ]. Background information and educationalcontext for the images can be found athttp://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/io.cfm [ http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/io.cfm ].
Date 05.31.2000
Wide Angle View of Arsia Mon …
Title Wide Angle View of Arsia Mons Volcano
Description Arsia Mons (above) is one of the largest volcanoes known. This shield volcano is part of an aligned trio known as the Tharsis Montes--the others are Pavonis Mons and Ascraeus Mons. Arsia Mons is rivaled only by Olympus Mons in terms of its volume. The summit of Arsia Mons is more than 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) higher than the surrounding plains. The crater--or caldera--at the volcano summit is approximately 110 km (68 mi) across. This view of Arsia Mons was taken by the red and blue wide angle cameras of the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) system. Bright water ice clouds (the whitish/bluish wisps) hang above the volcano--a common sight every martian afternoon in this region. Arsia Mons is located at 120o west longitude and 9o south latitude. Illumination is from the left.
Date 09.28.1999
Happy Face" Crater
title Happy Face" Crater
Description The story of the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) onboard the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft began with a proposal to NASA in 1985. The first MOC flew on Mars Observer, a spacecraft that was lost before it reached the red planet in 1993. Now, after 14 years of effort, a MOC has finally been placed in the desired mapping orbit. The MOC team's happiness is perhaps best expressed by the planet Mars itself. On the first day of the Mapping Phase of the MGS mission--during the second week of March 1999--MOC was greeted with this view of "Happy Face Crater" (center right) smiling back at the camera from its location on the east side of Argyre Planitia. This crater is officially known as Galle Crater, and it is about 215 kilometers (134 miles) across. The picture was taken by the MOC's red and blue wide angle cameras. The bluish-white tone is caused by wintertime frost. Illumination is from the upper left. For more information and Viking Orbiter views of "Happy Face Crater," see http://www.msss.com/education/happy_face/happy_face.html [ http://www.msss.com/education/happy_face/happy_face.html ]. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
Spallanzani Crater
title Spallanzani Crater
Description Although most of the best examples of layered sedimentary rock seen on Mars are found at equatorial and sub-tropical latitudes, a few locations seen at mid- and high-latitudes suggest that layered rocks are probably more common than we can actually see from orbit. One extremely good example of these "atypical" layered rock exposures is found in the 72 km-diameter (45 miles) crater, Spallanzani (58.4°S, 273.5°W). Located southeast of Hellas Planitia, the crater is named for the 18th Century Italian biologist, Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-1799). Picture A presents a composite of the best Viking orbiter image (VO2-504B55) of the region with 4 pictures obtained June 1999 through January 2001 by the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC). Each MOC narrow angle image is 3 km across. Taken in the MOC's "survey mode," all four images were acquired at roughly 12 meters (39 ft) per pixel. Picture B zooms-in on the portion of the composite image that includes the 4 MOC images (the 100%-size view is 20 m (66 ft) per pixel). Other craters in the region near Spallanzani show features--at Viking Orbiter scale--that are reminiscent of the layering seen in Spallanzani. Exactly what these layers are made of and how they came to be where we see them today are mysteries, but it is possible that they are similar to the materials seen in the many craters and chasms of the equatorial latitudes on Mars. Images Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
Mid-Winter Dust Storms Near …
title Mid-Winter Dust Storms Near Hellas Planitia
Description One of the primary objectives for the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) during the Extended Mission is to continue daily monitoring of martian weather as expressed in clouds, dust storms, and patches of polar frost. During the Primary Mission, which lasted from March 1999 through January 2001, changes that occurred over a single martian year (687 Earth days) were observed. Now it is possible to see what the martian atmosphere will do for at least two-thirds of a second martian year, because the Extended Mission will run into April 2002. This picture captures two dust storms, each large enough to cover Arizona or New Mexico. One is located near the lower left, the other at the lower right. Taken on April 8, 2001 (mid-southern winter), this is a mosaic of six MOC daily global images centered around Hellas Planitia in the martian southern hemisphere. Hellas Planitia is the dominant elliptical feature just below the center of the picture. The bright, nearly white surfaces along the lower (southern) edge of the picture are covered by wintertime frost. The strong temperature difference between the winter frost and the warmer air just off the edge of this polar cap generates winds that---at this time of year---are often strong enough to lift dust into large, reddish-brown, billowy clouds. North is up and sunlight illuminates the area from the upper left. The martian equator forms the arc along the top of the picture, 500 kilometers (km) is equal to about 311 miles. The approximately 500 kilometer-wide circular feature just above the center is the crater Huygens. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
Rolling Stones Make New Boul …
title Rolling Stones Make New Boulder Tracks
Description When a boulder rolls down a dusty slope, it can leave behind a trail of depressions. Usually known as boulder tracks, these features have been documented and studied on Earth, the Moon, and Mars. Geologists studying the Moon and Mars can use these tracks to learn about the physical properties of the fine-grained debris encountered by the boulder as it rolled down the slope. Because of the high-resolution capability (0.5 to 12 meters, 1.6 to 39 feet, per pixel) of the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, dozens of boulder track sites have been identified on the red planet. A Mars Orbiter Camera image of one set of boulder tracks in a south mid-latitude crater (located near 35.8 degrees south latitude, 158.4 degrees west longitude) was obtained on Nov. 14, 2003, (left). A second image of the same site, from Dec. 4, 2004, (right) shows that more than a dozen new boulder tracks formed on the crater wall during the intervening time. Mars is an active planet, with geologic changes occurring -- at some scale -- every day. In this case, some time between mid November 2003 and early December 2004, a suite of boulders became dislodged from the crater wall, then rolled and perhaps bounced their way to the crater floor. Wider context for the site can be seen in a mosaic of Mars Orbiter Camera wide-angle images acquired in May 1999 (insert MOC2-1213a). The white box indicates the location of the later, higher-resolution views. Why the new boulders slid down the slope is unknown. This is the product of a mass movement (landsliding) process. That is, gravity is the main culprit. Whether the boulder motion was triggered by something -- a seismic event ("Marsquake") or strong winds -- is not known. Also unknown is whether all of the new boulder tracks formed at the same time, in response to a single event, or rolled downhill one at a time over the nearly 13-month period. The Mars Orbiter Camera was built and is operated by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif. Mars Global Surveyor left Earth on Nov. 7, 1996, and began orbiting Mars on Sept. 12, 1997. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages Mars Global Surveyor for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS
Recently-Formed Impact Crate …
title Recently-Formed Impact Crater
Description Scientists using the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft have discovered a crater that appears to have formed on Mars in the past 20 or so Earth years, and have used it and several other similar craters to estimate the present cratering rate on Mars. One of the basic tenets of planetary geology is that impact craters have accumulated on planetary surfaces at roughly a constant rate since the early history of the solar system. This appears to have been the case for small craters on the surface of the Moon, as shown by measurements of the length of time that lunar rocks created by small impacts have been exposed to cosmic rays, as determined by laboratory measurements of samples returned to Earth by the Apollo astronauts. This principle should permit the number of craters found on a planetary surface to be used to determine the age of that surface, if the rate at which new craters form is known. Scientists have previously estimated the cratering rate of Mars by scaling the lunar cratering rate based on the proximity of Mars to the asteroid belt, and by performing calculations based on orbital mechanics. Another way to establish the cratering rate of Mars would be to use long-term observations, say, from orbiting spacecraft, to actually locate new craters. The new crater is located on the southern rim of the summit crater, or caldera, of the intermediate-sized martian volcano, Ulysses Patera. The site was imaged by the Viking 2 orbiter in 1976 (left, an enlarged portion of the image) and in narrow-angle views by the Mars Orbiter Camera in 1999 (center) and 2005 (right). The new crater, about 25 meters (82 feet) across, is marked by a distinct dark, rayed pattern of ejected material, or ejecta, which is seen to have faded somewhat between 1999 and 2005. Ulysses Patera, a volcanic shield about 100 kilometers (62 miles) in diameter volcanic shield, located near 2.5 degrees north latitude, 121.3 degrees west longitude, is one of the Tharsis volcanoes and is partly buried by younger lava flows. The summit caldera is about 55 kilometers (34 miles) in diameter. The amount that the crater's rays faded between 1999 and 2005 can be used to help estimate how many years ago the crater formed. The actual contrast between the ejecta and the undisturbed volcano summit materials is actually much less than it appears to be in these processed images, and the amount of fading is also much less. Images of disturbed surfaces from various parts of Mars, such as dust devil tracks, dark slope streaks and rover tracks, indicate that disturbed surfaces on Mars are dark and that they lighten with time. Using these other examples to estimate how dark the ejecta from the Ulysses crater was originally, and how much it has faded in six years, suggests the crater formed in the early to mid 1980s. The rate at which dark surfaces lighten on Mars is not uniform over the whole planet, but scientists using the Mars Orbiter Camera have found a number, of other craters with dark ejecta that have faded during the Mars Global Surveyor mission. The scientists estimate that these craters probably formed within the past 100 years. Although the sample is very small (the Mars Orbiter Camera narrow angle camera has imaged barely 4 percent of Mars), it appears that the recent cratering rate for craters on Mars 25 to 100 meters (82 to 328 feet) in diameter is about 0.000000003 to 0.000000006 craters per square kilometer (0.39 square mile) per Earth year, which is about five times lower than previous estimates. The site of the new crater is shown in wider context in a comparison of the 1976 Viking image with wide-angle views taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera in 1999 and 2005 (insert MOC2-1214b), and in even wider context in a regional mosaic of Viking images (insert MOC2-1214c). The Mars Orbiter Camera was built and is operated by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif. Mars Global Surveyor left Earth on Nov. 7, 1996, and began orbiting Mars on Sept. 12, 1997. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages Mars Global Surveyor for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS/USGS
Sand Dunes of Nili Patera in …
title Sand Dunes of Nili Patera in 3-D
Description The most exciting new aspect of the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Extended Mission is the opportunity to turn the spacecraft and point the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) at specific features of interest. Opportunities to point the spacecraft come about ten times a week. Throughout the Primary Mission (March 1999 - January 2001), nearly all MGS operations were conducted with the spacecraft pointing "nadir"---that is, straight down. A search for the missing Mars Polar Lander in late 1999 and early 2000 demonstrated that pointing the spacecraft could allow opportunities for MOC to see things that simply had not entered its field of view during typical nadir-looking operations, and to target areas previously seen in a nadir view so that stereo ("3-D") pictures could be derived. One of the very first places photographed by the MOC at the start of the Mapping Mission in March 1999 was a field of dunes located in Nili Patera, a volcanic depression in central Syrtis Major. A portion of this dune field was shown in a media release on March 11, 1999, "Sand Dunes of Nili Patera, Syrtis Major". Subsequently, the image was archived with the NASA Planetary Data System, as shown in the Malin Space Science Systems MOC Gallery. On April 24, 2001, an opportunity arose in which the MGS could be pointed off-nadir to take a new picture of the same dune field. By combining the nadir view from March 1999 and the off-nadir view from April 2001, a stereoscopic image was created. The anaglyph shown here must be viewed with red (left-eye) and blue (right-eye) "3-D" glasses. The dunes and the local topography of the volcanic crater's floor stand out in sharp relief. The images, taken more than one Mars year apart, show no change in the shape or location of the dunes---that is, they do not seem to have moved at all since March 1999. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
Apollinaris Patera
title Apollinaris Patera
Description This month (April 1999), the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) passed over the Apollinaris Patera volcano and captured a patch of bright clouds hanging over its summit in the early martian afternoon. This ancient volcano is located near the equator and--based on observations from the 1970s Viking Orbiters--is thought to be as much as 5 kilometers (3 miles) high. The caldera--the semi-circular crater at the volcano summit--is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) across. The color in this picture was derived from the MOC red and blue wide angle camera systems and does not represent true color as it would appear to the human eye (that is, if a human were in a position to be orbiting around the red planet). Illumination is from the upper left. Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
East Gorgonum Crater
title East Gorgonum Crater
Description This suite of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) pictures provides a vista of martian gullies on the northern wall of a 12 kilometer-(7.4 mile)-wide meteor impact crater east of the Gorgonum Chaos region on the red planet. The first picture (lower left) is a composite of three different high resolution MOC views obtained in 1999 and 2000. The second picture (lower right) shows the location of the high resolution views relative to the whole crater as it appeared in the highest resolution image previously acquired of the area, taken by the Viking 1 orbiter in 1978. The release image (top) shows a close-up of one of the channels and debris aprons found in the northwestern quarter of the impact crater. Some of the channels in this crater are deeply-entrenched and cut into lighter-toned deposits. The numerous channels and apron deposits indicate that many tens to hundreds of individual events involving the flow of water and debris have occurred here. The channels and aprons have very crisp, sharp relief and there are no small meteor impact craters on them, suggesting that these features are extremely young relative to the 4.5 billion year history of Mars. It is possible that these landforms are still being created by water seeping from the layered rock in the crater wall today. The crater has no name and it is located near 37.4°S, 168.0°W. The composite view in the lower left includes a picture taken by MOC on September 10, 1999, a picture obtained April 26, 2000, and another on May 22, 2000. The scene from left to right (including the dark gap between photos) covers an area approximately 7.6 kilometers (4.7 miles) wide by 18 km (11.1 mi) long. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper left. MOC high resolution images are taken black-and-white (grayscale), the color seen here has been synthesized from the colors of Mars observed by the MOC wide angle cameras and by the Viking Orbiters in the late 1970s. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
Western Australia's Jack Hil …
nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle …
Western Australia's Jack Hil …
jackhills_etm_1999208
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 1999-07-27
creator NASA -- Image by Robert Simmon, based on data from the University of Maryland's glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/index.shtml Global Land Cover Facility.
identifier jackhills_etm_1999208
Mount St. Helens Rebirth : I …
nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle …
The catastrophic eruption of …
mt_st_helens
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 1999-08-22
creator NASA -- Data courtesy Landsat 7 project and EROS Data Center. Caption by James Foster, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
identifier mt_st_helens
Lake Janisjarvi Impact Crate …
nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle …
Lake Jänisjärvi is a roughly …
ge_08635
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 1999-09-05
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier ge_08635
Lake Janisjarvi Impact Crate …
nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle …
Lake Jänisjärvi is a roughly …
ge_08635
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 1999-09-05
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier ge_08635
Popocatepetl : Image of the …
nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle …
Located about 40 miles (65 k …
landsat_popo
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 1999-01-04
creator NASA -- Image courtesy Ron Beck, edcdaac.usgs.gov/ EROS Data Center
identifier landsat_popo
ASTER Images the Island of H …
PIA02604
Sol (our sun)
ASTER
Title ASTER Images the Island of Hawaii
Original Caption Released with Image These images of the Island of Hawaii were acquired on March 19, 2000 by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA's Terra satellite. With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region, and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), ASTER will image Earth for the next 6 years to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. Data are shown from the short wavelength and thermal infrared spectral regions, illustrating how different and complementary information is contained in different parts of the spectrum. Left image: This false-color image covers an area 60 kilometers (37 miles) wide and 120 kilometers (75 miles) long in three bands of the short wavelength infrared region. While, much of the island was covered in clouds, the dominant central Mauna Loa volcano, rising to an altitude of 4115 meters (13,500 feet), is cloud-free. Lava flows can be seen radiating from the central crater in green and black tones. As they reach lower elevations, the flows become covered with vegetation, and their image color changes to yellow and orange. Mauna Kea volcano to the north of Mauna Loa has a thin cloud-cover, producing a bluish tone on the image. The ocean in the lower right appears brown due to the color processing. Right image: This image is a false-color composite of three thermal infrared bands. The brightness of the colors is proportional to the temperature, and the hues display differences in rock composition. Clouds are black, because they are the coldest objects in the scene. The ocean and thick vegetation appear dark green because they are colder than bare rock surfaces, and have no thermal spectral features. Lava flows are shades of magenta, green, pink and yellow, reflecting chemical changes due to weathering and relative age differences. Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra satellite. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the data products. Dr. Anne Kahle at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, is the U.S. Science team leader, Moshe Pniel of JPL is the project manager. ASTER is the only high resolution imaging sensor on Terra. The primary goal of the ASTER mission is to obtain high-resolution image data in 14 channels over the entire land surface, as well as black and white stereo images. With revisit time of between 4 and 16 days, ASTER will provide the capability for repeat coverage of changing areas on Earth's surface. The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER will provide scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping, and monitoring dynamic conditions and temporal change. Example applications, are: monitoring glacial advances and retreats, monitoring potentially active volcanoes, identifying crop stress, determining cloud morphology and physical properties, wetlands evaluation, thermal pollution monitoring, coral reef degradation, surface temperature mapping of soils and geology, and measuring surface heat balance.
View of Callisto at Increasi …
PIA01297
Jupiter
Solid-State Imaging
Title View of Callisto at Increasing Resolutions
Original Caption Released with Image Institute of Technology (Caltech). This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the World Wide Web, on the Galileo mission home page at URL http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov. Background information and educational context for the images can be found at URL http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo, These four views of Jupiter's second largest moon, Callisto, highlight how increasing resolutions enable interpretation of the surface. In the global view (top left) the surface is seen to have many small bright spots, while the regional view (top right) reveals the spots to be the larger craters. The local view (bottom right) not only brings out smaller craters and detailed structure of larger craters, but also shows a smooth dark layer of material that appears to cover much of the surface. The close-up frame (bottom left) presents a surprising smoothness in this highest resolution (30 meters per picture element) view of Callisto's surface. North is to the top of these frames which were taken by the Solid State Imaging (SSI) system on NASA's Galileo spacecraft between November 1996 and November 1997. Even higher resolution images (better than 20 meters per picture element) of Callisto will be taken on June 30, 1999 during the 21st orbit of the spacecraft around Jupiter. The top left frame is scaled to 10 kilometers (km) per picture element (pixel) and covers an area about 4400 by 2500 km. The moon Callisto, which has a diameter of 4806 km, appears to be peppered with many bright spots. Images at this resolution of other cratered moons in the Solar System indicate that the bright spots could be impact craters. The ring structure of Valhalla, the largest impact structure on Callisto, is visible in the center of the frame. This color view combines images obtained in November 1997 taken through the green, violet, and 1 micrometer filters of the SSI system. The top right frame is ten times higher resolution (about 1 km per pixel) and covers an area approximately 440 by 250 km. Craters, which are clearly recognizable, appear to be the dominant landform on Callisto. The crater rims appear bright, while the adjacent area and the crater interiors are dark. This resolution is comparable to the best data available from the 1979 flyby's of NASA's two Voyager spacecraft, it reflects the understanding of Callisto prior to new data from Galileo. This Galileo image was taken in November 1996. The resolution of the bottom right image is again ten times better (100 meters per pixel) and covering an area of about 44 by 25 km. This resolution reveals that some crater rims are not complete rings, but are composed of bright isolated segments. Steep slopes near crater rims reveal dark material that appears to have slid down to reveal bright material. The thickness of the dark layer could be tens of meters. The image was taken in June 1997. The bottom left image at about 29 meters per pixel is the highest resolution available for Callisto. It covers an area about 4.4 by 2.5 km and is somewhat oblique. Craters are visible but no longer dominate the surface. The image was taken in November 1996. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is an operating division of California
Nyiragongo volcano, Congo, P …
PIA03338
Sol (our sun)
C-Band Interferometric Radar …
Title Nyiragongo volcano, Congo, Perspective View with Lava SRTM / ASTER / Landsat
Original Caption Released with Image The Nyiragongo volcano in the Congo erupted on January 17, 2002, and subsequently sent streams of lava into the city of Goma on the north shore of Lake Kivu. More than 100 people were killed, more than 12,000 homes were destroyed, and hundreds of thousands were forced to flee the broader community of nearly half a million people. This computer-generated visualization combines a Landsat satellite image and an elevation model from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) to provide a view of both the volcano and the city of Goma, looking slightly east of north. Additionally, image data from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA's Terra satellite were used to supply a partial map of the recent lava flows (red), including a complete mapping of their intrusion into Goma as of January 28, 2002. Lava is also apparent within the volcanic crater and at a few other locations. Thick (but broken) cloud cover during the ASTER image acquisition prevented a complete mapping of the lava distribution, but future image acquisitions should complete the mapping. Nyiragongo is the steep volcano on the right, Lake Kivu is in the foreground, and the city of Goma has a light pink speckled appearance along the shoreline. Nyiragongo peaks at about 3,470 meters (11,380 feet) elevation and reaches almost exactly 2,000 meters (6,560 feet)above Lake Kivu. The shorter but broader Nyamuragira volcano appears in the left background. Topographic expression has been exaggerated vertically by a factor of 1.5 for this visualization. Goma, Lake Kivu, Nyiragongo, Nyamuragira and other nearby volcanoes sit within the East African Rift Valley, a zone where tectonic processes are cracking, stretching, and lowering the Earth's crust. Volcanic activity is common here, and older but geologically recent lava flows (magenta in this depiction) are particularly apparent on the flanks of the Nyamuragira volcano. The Landsat image used here was acquired on December 11, 2001, about a month before the eruption, and shows an unusually cloud-free view of this tropical terrain. Minor clouds and their shadows were digitally removed to clarify the view, topographic shading derived from the SRTM elevation model was added to the Landsat image, and a false sky was added. Landsat has been providing visible and infrared views of the Earth since 1972. SRTM elevation data matches the 30-meter (98-foot) resolution of most Landsat images and substantially helps in analyzing the large and growing Landsat image archive. This Landsat 7 Thematic Mapper image was provided to the SRTM and ASTER projects by the United States Geological Survey, Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center,Sioux Falls, S.D. With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region, and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) will image Earth, for several years to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra satellite. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the data products. ASTER is providing scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping and monitoring dynamic conditions and temporal change. Elevation data used in this image was acquired by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission(SRTM) aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on February 11, 2000. SRTM used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. SRTM was designed to collect 3-D measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter (approximately 200-foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between NASA, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA)of the U.S. Department of Defense and the German and Italian space agencies. It is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, Washington, D.C. Size: View width 21 kilometers (13 miles), View distance 42 kilometers(26 miles) Location: 1.5 degrees South latitude, 29.3 degrees East longitude Orientation: View east-northeast, 5 degrees below horizontal Image Data: Landsat Bands 3, 2, 1 as red, green, blue, respectively. ASTER Band 12(thermal) shown as red overlay. Original Data Resolution: SRTM 1 arcsecond (30 meters or 98 feet), Landsat 30 meters (98 feet). ASTER (thermal) 90 meters (295 feet). Date Acquired: February 2000 (SRTM), December 11, 2001 (Landsat), January 28, 2002(ASTER)
Nyiragongo Volcano, Congo, M …
PIA03339
Sol (our sun)
C-Band Interferometric Radar …
Title Nyiragongo Volcano, Congo, Map View with Lava, Landsat / ASTER / SRTM
Original Caption Released with Image The Nyiragongo volcano in the Congo erupted on January 17, 2002, and subsequently sent streams of lava into the city of Goma on the north shore of Lake Kivu. More than 100 people were killed, more than 12,000 homes were destroyed, and hundreds of thousands were forced to flee the broader community of nearly half a million people. This Landsat satellite image shows the volcano (right of center), the city of Goma, and surrounding terrain. Image data from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA's Terra satellite were used to supply a partial map of the recent lava flows (red overlay), including a complete mapping of their intrusion into Goma as of January 28, 2002. Lava is also apparent within the volcanic crater and at a few other locations. Thick (but broken) cloud cover during the ASTER image acquisition prevented a complete mapping of the lava distribution, but future image acquisitions should complete the mapping. Goma has a light pink speckled appearance along the shore of Lake Kivu. The city airport parallels, and is just right (east) of, the larger lava flow. Nyiragongo peaks at about 3,470 meters (11,380 feet) elevation and reaches almost exactly 2,000 meters (6,560 feet) above Lake Kivu. The shorter but much broader Nyamuragira volcano appears in the upper left. Goma, Lake Kivu, Nyiragongo, Nyamuragira and other nearby volcanoes sit within the East African Rift Valley, a zone where tectonic processes are cracking, stretching, and lowering the Earth's crust. Volcanic activity is common here, and older but geologically recent lava flows (magenta in this depiction) are particularly apparent on the flanks of the Nyamuragira volcano. The Landsat image used here was acquired on December 11, 2001, about a month before the eruption, and shows an unusually cloud-free view of this tropical terrain. Minor clouds and their shadows were digitally removed to clarify the view and topographic shading derived from the SRTM elevation model was added to the Landsat image. Landsat has been providing visible and infrared views of the Earth since 1972. SRTM elevation data matches the 30-meter (98-foot) resolution of most Landsat images and substantially helps in analyzing the large and growing Landsat image archive. This Landsat 7 Thematic Mapper image was provided to the SRTM and ASTER projects by the United States Geological Survey, Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center, Sioux Falls, S.D. With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region, and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) will image Earth for several years to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra satellite. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy,Trade and Industry. A joint, U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the data products. ASTER is providing scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping and monitoring dynamic conditions and temporal change. Elevation data used in this image was acquired by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on February 11, 2000. SRTM used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. SRTM was designed to collect 3-D measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter(approximately 200-foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between NASA, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) of the U.S. Department of Defense and the German and Italian space agencies. It is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise,Washington, D.C. Size: 21 by 42 kilometers (13 by 26 miles) Location: 1.5 degrees South latitude, 29.3 degrees East longitude Orientation: East-northeast at top Image Data: Landsat Bands 3, 2, 1 as red, green, blue, respectively. ASTER Band 12 (thermal) shown as red overlay. Original Data Resolution: Landsat 30 meters (98 feet). ASTER (thermal) 90 meters (295 feet), SRTM 1 arcsecond (30 meters or 98 feet). Date Acquired: December 11, 2001 (Landsat), January 28, 2002 (ASTER), February 2000 (SRTM).
Northern Plains Textures Vis …
PIA01697
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Northern Plains Textures Visible Near the Terminator
Original Caption Released with Image Each day, Mars Global Surveyor makes 12 orbits around the red planet. On each orbit at the present time (April 1999), the spacecraft passes from daylight into night somewhere over the northern plains of Mars, and re-emerges into daylight over the southern cratered highlands. The illumination conditions near the martian terminator--the line between night and day--are perfect for observing surface texture and topography. This picture shows a common, rough and bumpy texture that MOC has revealed on the northern plains of Mars. Note the eroded impact crater at the bottom right--small black dots along its rim are interpreted to be boulders. This image covers an area 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) wide by 8 kilometers (5 miles) long and is illuminated by the sun shining low from the northeastern horizon(from the upper right). Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO.
Mariner 4 Meets Mars Global …
PIA01685
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Mariner 4 Meets Mars Global Surveyor--Mariner Crater 1965 and 1999
Original Caption Released with Image Mars exploration in the last half of the 20th Century comes full circle with a modern view of Mariner Crater obtained by the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) in early March 1999. Mariner 4 was the first spacecraft to reach the red planet and take close-up pictures that revealed its ancient, cratered surface. The picture on the left, above, is the 11th image taken by Mariner 4 during its July 1965 flyby. The center of the Mariner 4 image is dominated by a crater that is about 155 kilometers (96 miles) in diameter and located at 32°S latitude and 164°W longitude. The crater was named "Mariner" in 1967 by the International Astronomical Union in honor of its discovery by Mariner 4. The white arrow indicates the location of the new MGS MOC image. The picture on the right represents an improvement in resolution of almost a factor of 400. It shows a view of a tiny portion of the southeastern floor of Mariner Crater, as it appeared to the MGS MOC in 1999. In 1965, it was a surprise to find that the martian surface is pocked with craters. In 1999, using the MGS MOC, we now have the ability to see objects the size of automobiles on the martian surface. This view of the Mariner Crater floor has a spatial resolution of 1.5 meters(5 feet) per pixel and covers an area only 1.5 km (0.9 mi) wide by 2.2 km (1.4 mi)long. Illumination is from the upper left in both the Mariner and MGS images. For a mercator-projected Viking 1 Orbiter view of this crater (obtained in 1978)click here. Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO.
High Resolution View of Nort …
PIA01677
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title High Resolution View of Northern Plains Surface
Original Caption Released with Image Until now, the vast northern plains of Mars have largely eluded the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) because these plains were obscured by winter and springtime clouds during most of the 1997 and 1998 Aerobraking and Science Phasing portions of the MGS Mission. However, now in March 1999 it is summertime in the northern hemisphere of Mars, and the northern plains are clearly in view. This image was taken at a resolution of 3 meters (10 feet) per pixel in order to characterize the nature of these plains. The image is located near Lomonosov Crater on the Vastitas Borealis plain. The image shows a patterned surface with two distinct rings that are suspected to be the locations of buried impact craters. The larger such ring (right) has dark spots clustered in several patches along its margins--these are fields boulders and rocks. The image covers an area 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) across and is illuminated from the lower left. Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO.
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