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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter …
title Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter at Nilosyrtis
date 12.10.2003
description The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter passes above Nilosyrtis Mensae in this illustration. NASA plans to launch this multipurpose spacecraft in August 2005 to advance our understanding of Mars through detailed observation, to examine potential landing sites for future surface missions and to provide a high-data-rate communications relay for those missions. *Image Credit*: NASA/JPL
Mars Reconaissance Orbiter A …
title Mars Reconaissance Orbiter Aerobraking
date 12.10.2003
description NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter dips into the thin Martian atmosphere to adjust its orbit in this illustration. NASA plans to launch this multipurpose spacecraft in August 2005 for arrival at Mars in March 2006. The plans call for controlled use of atmospheric friction in a process called aerobraking for about six months after arrival to change the initial, very elongated orbit into a rounder shape optimal for science operations. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is designed to advance our understanding of Mars through detailed observation, to examine potential landing sites for future surface missions and to provide a high-data-rate communications relay for those missions. *Image Credit*: NASA/JPL
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter …
title Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter at Martian South Pole
date 12.10.2003
description NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter passes over the planet's south polar region in this artist's concept illustration. NASA plans to launch this multipurpose spacecraft in August 2005 to advance our understanding of Mars through detailed observation, to examine potential landing sites for future surface missions and to provide a high-data-rate communications relay for those missions. The orbiter's shallow radar experiment, one of six science instruments on board, is designed to probe the internal structure of Mars' polar ice caps, as well as to gather information planet-wide about underground layers of ice, rock and, perhaps, liquid water that might be accessible from the surface. Phobos, one of Mars' two moons, appears in the upper left corner of the illustration *Image Credit*: NASA/JPL
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter …
Title Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Aerobraking
Description December 10, 2003 NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter dips into the thin martian atmosphere to adjust its orbit in this artist's concept illustration. NASA plans to launch this multipurpose spacecraft in August 2005 for arrival at Mars in March 2006. The plans call for controlled use of atmospheric friction in a process called aerobraking for about six months after arrival to change the initial, very elongated orbit into a rounder shape optimal for science operations. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is designed to advance our understanding of Mars through detailed observation, to examine potential landing sites for future surface missions and to provide a high-data-rate communications relay for those missions. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for the NASA Office of Space Science, Washington. JPL's main industrial partner in the project, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, Colo., is building the spacecraft.
Date 12.10.2003
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter …
Title Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter over Nilosyrtis
Description December 10, 2003 NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter passes above a portion of the planet called Nilosyrtis Mensae in this artist's concept illustration. NASA plans to launch this multipurpose spacecraft in August 2005 to advance our understanding of Mars through detailed observation, to examine potential landing sites for future surface missions and to provide a high-data-rate communications relay for those missions. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for the NASA Office of Space Science, Washington. JPL's main industrial partner in the project, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, Colo., is building the spacecraft.
Date 12.10.2003
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter …
Title Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter over Pole
Description December 10, 2003 NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter passes over the planet's south polar region in this artist's concept illustration. NASA plans to launch this multipurpose spacecraft in August 2005 to advance our understanding of Mars through detailed observation, to examine potential landing sites for future surface missions and to provide a high-data-rate communications relay for those missions. The orbiter's shallow radar experiment, one of six science instruments on board, is designed to probe the internal structure of Mars' polar ice caps, as well as to gather information planet-wide about underground layers of ice, rock and, perhaps, liquid water that might be accessible from the surface. Phobos, one of Mars' two moons, appears in the upper left corner of the illustration NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for the NASA Office of Space Science, Washington. JPL's main industrial partner in the project, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, Colo., is building the spacecraft. The Italian Space Agency is providing the radar instrument.
Date 12.10.2003
An Atlas 5 Rocket
title An Atlas 5 Rocket
Description An Atlas 5 rocket will launch the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in August 2005.  Lockheed Martin is building the orbiter at its facility near Denver, Colorado.  Lockheed Martin is also building the Atlas 5, designated AV-007, that will launch the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter from launch complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Credit: Lockheed Martin
An Atlas 5 Rocket
title An Atlas 5 Rocket
Description An Atlas 5 rocket will launch the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in August 2005.  Lockheed Martin is building the orbiter at its facility near Denver, Colorado.  Lockheed Martin is also building the Atlas 5, designated AV-007, that will launch the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter from launch complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Credit: Lockheed Martin
An Atlas 5 Rocket
title An Atlas 5 Rocket
Description An Atlas 5 rocket will launch the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in August 2005.  Lockheed Martin is building the orbiter at its facility near Denver, Colorado.  Lockheed Martin is also building the Atlas 5, designated AV-007, that will launch the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter from launch complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Credit: Lockheed Martin
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter …
title Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Taking Shape
Description Lockheed Martin Space Systems engineer Terry Kampmann (left) and lead technician Jack Farmerie work on assembly and test of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft bus in a cleanroom at the company's Denver facility. In coming months, the orbiter's science instruments will be integrated and tested, followed by environmental testing of the completed spacecraft. Launch of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is scheduled for August 2005. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project is managed for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is prime contractor for the project. Credit: NASA/JPL/Lockheed Martin/Pat Corkery
Bird's Eye View of Mars
PIA05490
[NULL]
Title Bird's Eye View of Mars
Original Caption Released with Image This artist's concept shows NASA's future Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission over the red planet. NASA plans to launch this multipurpose spacecraft in August 2005 to advance our understanding of Mars through detailed observation, to examine potential landing sites for future surface missions and to provide a high-data-rate communications relay for those missions. The orbiter's shallow radar experiment, one of six science instruments on board, is designed to probe the internal structure of Mars' polar ice caps, as well as to gather information planet-wide about underground layers of ice, rock and, perhaps, liquid water, which might be accessible from the surface.
Crater and Flows
PIA03074
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Crater and Flows
Original Caption Released with Image 29 October 2005 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a crater surrounded by thin flows in southeastern Kasei Valles. The flows might have been lava or mud. The picture was acquired in August 2005. "Location near": 14.2°N, 75.1°W "Image width": width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": left/lower left "Season": Northern Autumn
Isidis Planitia
PIA03087
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Isidis Planitia
Original Caption Released with Image 3 November 2005 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a cratered surface in Isidis Planitia, a martian lowland. Light-toned "squiggles" in this August 2005 image are large windblown ripples. "Location near": 10.6°N, 275.2°W "Image width": width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": lower left "Season": Northern Autumn
Tikhonravov Layers
PIA03966
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Tikhonravov Layers
Original Caption Released with Image 24 June 2005 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a view of some of the circular pits and spectacular buttes and mesas formed in the frozen carbon dioxide of the martian south polar residual cap. The scarps that bound each pit and mesa have been observed by MOC to retreat at an average rate of about 3 meters (~3 yards) during each southern summer season that the spacecraft has been in orbit. A new summer season will start in mid-August 2005. "Location near": 86.9°S, 5.3°W"Image width": ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": upper left "Season": Southern Spring
Frozen Carbon Dioxide
PIA04130
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Frozen Carbon Dioxide
Original Caption Released with Image 1 August 2005 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a south polar residual cap landscape, formed in frozen carbon dioxide. There is no place on Earth that one can go to visit a landscape covering thousands of square kilometers with frozen carbon dioxide, so mesas, pits, and other landforms of the martian south polar region are as alien as they are beautiful. The scarps of the south polar region are known from thousands of other MGS MOC images to retreat at a rate of about 3 meters (~3 yards) per martian year, indiating that slowly, over the course of the MGS mission, the amount of carbon dioxide in the martian atmosphere has probably been increasing. "Location near": 86.9°S, 25.5°W "Image width": width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": upper left "Season": Southern Spring
Dunes of Herschel
PIA04133
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Dunes of Herschel
Original Caption Released with Image 4 August 2005 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows dark-toned sand dunes on the floor of the large martian impact crater, Herschel, located in the Terra Cimmeria region of Mars. The winds responsible for these dunes blew from the northeast (upper right). "Location near": 15.7°S, 228.6°W "Image width": width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": upper left "Season": Southern Spring
Defrosting Patterns
PIA04137
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Defrosting Patterns
Original Caption Released with Image 8 August 2005 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows bright (and a few dark) wind streaks formed in the defrosting carbon dioxide of the south polar seasonal frost cap. Unknown is whether the streaks form when wind picks up, moves, and deposits ice particles, or whether wind erodes down into the ice to form the streak pattern. "Location near": 86.7°S, 295.5°W "Image width": width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": upper left "Season": Southern Spring
Mars at Ls 269°: Acidalia/Ma …
PIA04138
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Mars at Ls 269°: Acidalia/Mare Erythraeum
Original Caption Released with Image 9 August 2005 This picture is a composite of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) daily global images acquired at Ls 269° during a previous Mars year. This month, Mars looks similar, as Ls 269° occurs in mid-August 2005. The picture shows the Acidalia/Mare Erythraeum face of Mars. Over the course of the month, additional faces of Mars as it appears at this time of year are being posted for MOC Picture of the Day. Ls, solar longitude, is a measure of the time of year on Mars. Mars travels 360° around the Sun in 1 Mars year. The year begins at Ls 0°, the start of northern spring and southern autumn. "Season": last days of Northern Autumn/Southern Spring
Mid-latitude Dunes
PIA04136
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Mid-latitude Dunes
Original Caption Released with Image 7 August 2005 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows dark sand dunes on the floor of a southern mid-latitude impact crater. Craters are commonly the site of sand dunes, as sand may become trapped in these topographic depressions. In this case, the winds responsible for the dunes generally blew from the south/southeast (bottom/lower right), "Location near": 51.8°S, 105.5°W"Image width": width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": upper left "Season": Southern Spring
Mars at Ls 269°: Tharsis
PIA04131
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Mars at Ls 269°: Tharsis
Original Caption Released with Image 2 August 2005 This picture is a composite of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) daily global images acquired at Ls 269° during a previous Mars year. This month, Mars looks similar, as Ls 269° occurs in mid-August 2005. The picture shows the Tharsis face of Mars. Over the course of the month, additional faces of Mars as it appears at this time of year are being posted for MOC Picture of the Day. Ls, solar longitude, is a measure of the time of year on Mars. Mars travels 360° around the Sun in 1 Mars year. The year begins at Ls 0°, the start of northern spring and southern autumn. "Season": last days of Northern Autumn/Southern Spring
Windblown Dunes
PIA04135
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Windblown Dunes
Original Caption Released with Image 6 August 2005 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows shows a suite of small, dark sand dunes on the floor of a crater in western Arabia Terra. The winds responsible for these dunes generally blow from the east/southeast (right/lower right). "Location near": 6.3°N, 349.6°W "Image width": width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": upper left "Season": Northern Summer
Wind-Eroded Terrain
PIA04132
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Wind-Eroded Terrain
Original Caption Released with Image 3 August 2005 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows yardangs, a ridge-and-groove landform produced by wind erosion of a granular, sand-rich bedrock. These are located west-southwest of the volcano, Olympus Mons. Yardangs are common on Mars, especially in the regions west and southwest of Olympus Mons, in southern Amazonis Planitia. "Location near": 14.8°N, 146.6°W "Image width": width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": lower left "Season": Northern Autumn
Mars at Ls 269°: Syrtis Majo …
PIA04149
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Mars at Ls 269°: Syrtis Major
Original Caption Released with Image 16 August 2005 This picture is a composite of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) daily global images acquired at Ls 269° during a previous Mars year. This month, Mars looks similar, as Ls 269° occurs in mid-August 2005. The picture shows the Syrtis Major face of Mars. Over the course of the month, additional faces of Mars as it appears at this time of year are being posted for MOC Picture of the Day. Ls, solar longitude, is a measure of the time of year on Mars. Mars travels 360° around the Sun in 1 Mars year. The year begins at Ls 0°, the start of northern spring and southern autumn. "Season": last days of Northern Autumn/Southern Spring
Mars at Ls 269°: South Polar …
PIA04177
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Mars at Ls 269°: South Polar Region
Original Caption Released with Image 30 August 2005 This picture is a composite of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) daily global images acquired at Ls 269° during a previous Mars year. This month, Mars looks similar, as Ls 269° occurred in mid-August 2005. The picture shows the south polar region of Mars. Over the course of the month, additional faces of Mars as it appears at this time of year are being posted for MOC Picture of the Day. Ls, solar longitude, is a measure of the time of year on Mars. Mars travels 360° around the Sun in 1 Mars year. The year begins at Ls 0°, the start of northern spring and southern autumn. "Season": last days of Northern Autumn/Southern Spring
Mars at Ls 269°: Elysium/Mar …
PIA04165
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Mars at Ls 269°: Elysium/Mare Cimmerium
Original Caption Released with Image 23 August 2005 This picture is a composite of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) daily global images acquired at Ls 269° during a previous Mars year. This month, Mars looks similar, as Ls 269° occurred in mid-August 2005. The picture shows the Elysium/Mare Cimmerium face of Mars. Over the course of the month, additional faces of Mars as it appears at this time of year are being posted for MOC Picture of the Day. Ls, solar longitude, is a measure of the time of year on Mars. Mars travels 360° around the Sun in 1 Mars year. The year begins at Ls 0°, the start of northern spring and southern autumn. "Season": last days of Northern Autumn/Southern Spring
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter …
PIA04918
Title Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter over Pole
Original Caption Released with Image December 10, 2003 NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter passes over the planet's south polar region in this artist's concept illustration. NASA plans to launch this multipurpose spacecraft in August 2005 to advance our understanding of Mars through detailed observation, to examine potential landing sites for future surface missions and to provide a high-data-rate communications relay for those missions. The orbiter's shallow radar experiment, one of six science instruments on board, is designed to probe the internal structure of Mars' polar ice caps, as well as to gather information planet-wide about underground layers of ice, rock and, perhaps, liquid water that might be accessible from the surface. Phobos, one of Mars' two moons, appears in the upper left corner of the illustration NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for the NASA Office of Space Science, Washington. JPL's main industrial partner in the project, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, Colo., is building the spacecraft. The Italian Space Agency is providing the radar instrument.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter …
PIA04916
Title Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter over Nilosyrtis
Original Caption Released with Image December 10, 2003 NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter passes above a portion of the planet called Nilosyrtis Mensae in this artist's concept illustration. NASA plans to launch this multipurpose spacecraft in August 2005 to advance our understanding of Mars through detailed observation, to examine potential landing sites for future surface missions and to provide a high-data-rate communications relay for those missions. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for the NASA Office of Space Science, Washington. JPL's main industrial partner in the project, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, Colo., is building the spacecraft.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter …
PIA04917
Title Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Aerobraking
Original Caption Released with Image December 10, 2003 NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter dips into the thin martian atmosphere to adjust its orbit in this artist's concept illustration. NASA plans to launch this multipurpose spacecraft in August 2005 for arrival at Mars in March 2006. The plans call for controlled use of atmospheric friction in a process called aerobraking for about six months after arrival to change the initial, very elongated orbit into a rounder shape optimal for science operations. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is designed to advance our understanding of Mars through detailed observation, to examine potential landing sites for future surface missions and to provide a high-data-rate communications relay for those missions. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for the NASA Office of Space Science, Washington. JPL's main industrial partner in the project, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, Colo., is building the spacecraft.
Positioning a Camera for Mar …
PIA07208
HiRISE
Title Positioning a Camera for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Original Caption Released with Image Workers at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, position a telescopic camera for installation onto NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on Dec. 11, 2004. Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo., built this camera, called the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, for the University of Arizona, Tucson, to supply for the mission. The orbiter is scheduled for launch in August 2005 carrying six science instruments.
Hoisting a Camera for Mars R …
PIA07207
HiRISE
Title Hoisting a Camera for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Original Caption Released with Image Workers at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, hoist a telescopic camera for installation onto NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on Dec. 11, 2004. Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo., built this camera, called the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, for the University of Arizona, Tucson, to supply for the mission. The orbiter is scheduled for launch in August 2005 carrying six science instruments.
Camera Ready to Install on M …
PIA07206
HiRISE
Title Camera Ready to Install on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Original Caption Released with Image A telescopic camera called the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, (right) was installed onto the main structure of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (left) on Dec. 11, 2004 at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver. The orbiter is scheduled for launch in August 2005 carrying six science instruments. Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo., built this camera for the University of Arizona, Tucson, to supply for the mission.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter …
PIA07212
Title Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in High Bay
Original Caption Released with Image Engineers and technicians at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, are building the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA. Assembly and testing of the spacecraft are underway in preparation for launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in August 2005 aboard an Atlas V launch vehicle. In late October 2004, the spacecraft was moved from the High Bay clean room (shown here) into the Reverberant Acoustic Lab, where system environmental testing will continue through March 2005. The testing includes modal survey (which involves measuring spacecraft modes and frequencies), electronic compatibility testing, acoustic testing (which simulates sound vibrations that the spacecraft will experience during launch), shock and deployment tests, and thermal vacuum testing.
Installing a Camera on Mars …
PIA07209
HiRISE
Title Installing a Camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Original Caption Released with Image Workers at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, install a telescopic camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on Dec. 11, 2004. Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo., built this camera, called the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, for the University of Arizona, Tucson, to supply for the mission. The orbiter is scheduled for launch in August 2005 carrying six science instruments.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter …
PIA07210
HiRISE
Title Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter After Camera Installation
Original Caption Released with Image A telescopic camera called the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, was installed onto the main structure of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Dec. 11, 2004 at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, Colo. HiRISE is at the top of the spacecraft in this image. Some other large components, including solar panels and the high-gain antenna, had not yet been installed. The orbiter is scheduled for launch in August 2005 carrying six science instruments. Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo., built HiRISE for the University of Arizona, Tucson, to supply for the mission.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter …
PIA06756
Title Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Taking Shape
Original Caption Released with Image Lockheed Martin Space Systems engineer Terry Kampmann (left) and lead technician Jack Farmerie work on assembly and test of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft bus in a cleanroom at the company's Denver facility. In coming months, the orbiter's science instruments will be integrated and tested, followed by environmental testing of the completed spacecraft. Launch of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is scheduled for August 2005. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project is managed for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is prime contractor for the project.
New Gully Deposit in a Crate …
PIA09027
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title New Gully Deposit in a Crater in Terra Sirenum
Original Caption Released with Image Has liquid water flowed on Mars in this decade? In June 2000, we reported the discovery, using the Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbiter Camera, of very youthful-looking gullies found on slopes at middle and high latitudes on Mars. Since that time, tens of thousands of gullies have been imaged by all of the Mars orbiting spacecraft: Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, Mars Express and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. During the years since the original June 2000 report, the Mars Global Surveyor's camera was used to test the hypothesis that the gullies may be so young that some of them could still be active today. The test was very simple: re-image gullies previously seen by the camera and see if anything has changed. In two cases, something changed. One of those cases is presented here. A gully on the wall of an unnamed crater in Terra Sirenum, at 36.6 degrees south, 161.8 degrees west, was initially imaged by the camera on Dec. 22, 2001 (Figure A, left). It showed nothing noteworthy at the location where a change would later be observed, but a group of nearby gullies exhibited an unusual patch of light-toned material. As part of our routine campaign to re-image gully sites using the camera, another image of this location was acquired on April 24, 2005. A new light-toned deposit had appeared in what was otherwise a nondescript gully (Figure A, right). This deposit was imaged again by the camera on Aug. 26, 2005, at a time when the sun angle and season were the same as in the original December 2001 image, to confirm that indeed the light-toned feature was something new, not just a trick of differing lighting conditions. In August 2005, the feature was still present. Figure A: This set of images shows a comparison of the gully site as it appeared on Dec. 22, 2001 (left), with a mosaic of two images acquired after the change occurred (the two images are from Aug. 26, 2005, and Sept. 25, 2005). Sunlight illuminates each scene from the northwest (top left). The 150-meter scale bar represents 164 yards. Figure B: This is a mosaic of images that cover the entire unnamed crater in Terra Sirenum. The location of the light-toned gully deposits, old and new, is indicated. This is a mosaic of images acquired by the camera in 2005 and 2006. The 500-meter scale bar equals approximately 547 yards. Figure C: This image shows an enlargement of a portion of another image from August 2005, showing details of the new, light-toned gully deposit. The new material covers the entire gully floor, from the point at which the gully emerged from beneath a mantled slope, down to the spot at which the channel meets the crater floor. At this break in slope, the gully material, as it was emplaced, spread out into five or six different fingers (this is called a "digitate" termination as in finger digits). The 75-meter scale bar represents a distance of about 82 yards. Figure D: To confirm that the new, light-toned gully deposit is not just a trick of changing, Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., a division of the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operates the spacecraft. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., built and operates the Mars Orbiter Camera. For more information about images from the Mars Orbiter Camera, see http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html [ http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html ]., illumination conditions as the sun rises to different levels in the sky each season, the Mars Orbiter Camera team repeatedly imaged this site throughout 2005 and 2006. Four examples are shown here, acquired in April 2005, August 2005, February 2006 and April 2006. The "i=" indicates solar-incidence angle, or the height of the sun in the local sky, relative to a case where the sun would be directly overhead (i=0 degrees). Thus, the higher the incidence angle, the lower the sun would appear in the sky to an observer on the ground. These images show that a material flowed down through a gully channel, once between December 2001 and April 2005. After the flow stopped, it left behind evidence -- the light-toned deposit. The deposit is thin enough that its thickness cannot be measured in the camera's 1.5-meters-per-pixel images. However, it does exhibit a digitate termination, suggesting that the material flowed in a fluid-like manner down the approximately 25 degree slope before splaying out into multiple small lobes at the point where the crater wall meets the crater floor and the slope suddenly drops to near zero. This deposit, and a similar one in a crater in the Centauri Montes, together suggests that the materials involved were low-volume debris flows containing a mixture of sediment and a liquid that had the physical properties of liquid water. In this case, we propose that the water came from below the surface, emerged somewhere beneath the mantle covering the original crater wall, and then ran down through a previously existing gully channel. No new gully was formed, but an old one was re-activated. The light tone of the new gully deposit, and that of the older, neighboring gullies, is intriguing. We cannot know from these images whether the light tone indicates that ice is still present in and on the surface of the deposit. Indeed, ice may not be likely: under present conditions on the surface of Mars, ice would be expected to have sublimed, or vaporized, away fairly shortly after the new deposit formed. However, the light-toned material could be frost that forms and re-forms frequently as trapped water-ice sublimes and "exhales" from within the deposit. Alternatively, the light-tone may result if the deposit consists of significantly finer grains (for example, fine silt) than the surrounding surfaces, or if the deposit's surface is covered with minerals such as salts formed as water evaporated from the material. Do these images prove that water has flowed on Mars? No, they cannot. However, they provide the first very tantalizing evidence that this may have occurred. While the surface environment on Mars is extremely dry, drier than the most arid deserts on Earth, liquid water from beneath the Martian surface may have come out of the ground and flowed across this little portion of the red planet in this decade. The Mars Global Surveyor mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, by NASA's Jet Propulsion
New Gully Deposit in a Crate …
PIA09027
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title New Gully Deposit in a Crater in Terra Sirenum
Original Caption Released with Image Has liquid water flowed on Mars in this decade? In June 2000, we reported the discovery, using the Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbiter Camera, of very youthful-looking gullies found on slopes at middle and high latitudes on Mars. Since that time, tens of thousands of gullies have been imaged by all of the Mars orbiting spacecraft: Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, Mars Express and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. During the years since the original June 2000 report, the Mars Global Surveyor's camera was used to test the hypothesis that the gullies may be so young that some of them could still be active today. The test was very simple: re-image gullies previously seen by the camera and see if anything has changed. In two cases, something changed. One of those cases is presented here. A gully on the wall of an unnamed crater in Terra Sirenum, at 36.6 degrees south, 161.8 degrees west, was initially imaged by the camera on Dec. 22, 2001 (Figure A, left). It showed nothing noteworthy at the location where a change would later be observed, but a group of nearby gullies exhibited an unusual patch of light-toned material. As part of our routine campaign to re-image gully sites using the camera, another image of this location was acquired on April 24, 2005. A new light-toned deposit had appeared in what was otherwise a nondescript gully (Figure A, right). This deposit was imaged again by the camera on Aug. 26, 2005, at a time when the sun angle and season were the same as in the original December 2001 image, to confirm that indeed the light-toned feature was something new, not just a trick of differing lighting conditions. In August 2005, the feature was still present. Figure A: This set of images shows a comparison of the gully site as it appeared on Dec. 22, 2001 (left), with a mosaic of two images acquired after the change occurred (the two images are from Aug. 26, 2005, and Sept. 25, 2005). Sunlight illuminates each scene from the northwest (top left). The 150-meter scale bar represents 164 yards. Figure B: This is a mosaic of images that cover the entire unnamed crater in Terra Sirenum. The location of the light-toned gully deposits, old and new, is indicated. This is a mosaic of images acquired by the camera in 2005 and 2006. The 500-meter scale bar equals approximately 547 yards. Figure C: This image shows an enlargement of a portion of another image from August 2005, showing details of the new, light-toned gully deposit. The new material covers the entire gully floor, from the point at which the gully emerged from beneath a mantled slope, down to the spot at which the channel meets the crater floor. At this break in slope, the gully material, as it was emplaced, spread out into five or six different fingers (this is called a "digitate" termination as in finger digits). The 75-meter scale bar represents a distance of about 82 yards. Figure D: To confirm that the new, light-toned gully deposit is not just a trick of changing, Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., a division of the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operates the spacecraft. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., built and operates the Mars Orbiter Camera. For more information about images from the Mars Orbiter Camera, see http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html [ http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html ]., illumination conditions as the sun rises to different levels in the sky each season, the Mars Orbiter Camera team repeatedly imaged this site throughout 2005 and 2006. Four examples are shown here, acquired in April 2005, August 2005, February 2006 and April 2006. The "i=" indicates solar-incidence angle, or the height of the sun in the local sky, relative to a case where the sun would be directly overhead (i=0 degrees). Thus, the higher the incidence angle, the lower the sun would appear in the sky to an observer on the ground. These images show that a material flowed down through a gully channel, once between December 2001 and April 2005. After the flow stopped, it left behind evidence -- the light-toned deposit. The deposit is thin enough that its thickness cannot be measured in the camera's 1.5-meters-per-pixel images. However, it does exhibit a digitate termination, suggesting that the material flowed in a fluid-like manner down the approximately 25 degree slope before splaying out into multiple small lobes at the point where the crater wall meets the crater floor and the slope suddenly drops to near zero. This deposit, and a similar one in a crater in the Centauri Montes, together suggests that the materials involved were low-volume debris flows containing a mixture of sediment and a liquid that had the physical properties of liquid water. In this case, we propose that the water came from below the surface, emerged somewhere beneath the mantle covering the original crater wall, and then ran down through a previously existing gully channel. No new gully was formed, but an old one was re-activated. The light tone of the new gully deposit, and that of the older, neighboring gullies, is intriguing. We cannot know from these images whether the light tone indicates that ice is still present in and on the surface of the deposit. Indeed, ice may not be likely: under present conditions on the surface of Mars, ice would be expected to have sublimed, or vaporized, away fairly shortly after the new deposit formed. However, the light-toned material could be frost that forms and re-forms frequently as trapped water-ice sublimes and "exhales" from within the deposit. Alternatively, the light-tone may result if the deposit consists of significantly finer grains (for example, fine silt) than the surrounding surfaces, or if the deposit's surface is covered with minerals such as salts formed as water evaporated from the material. Do these images prove that water has flowed on Mars? No, they cannot. However, they provide the first very tantalizing evidence that this may have occurred. While the surface environment on Mars is extremely dry, drier than the most arid deserts on Earth, liquid water from beneath the Martian surface may have come out of the ground and flowed across this little portion of the red planet in this decade. The Mars Global Surveyor mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, by NASA's Jet Propulsion
New Gully Deposit in a Crate …
PIA09027
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title New Gully Deposit in a Crater in Terra Sirenum
Original Caption Released with Image Has liquid water flowed on Mars in this decade? In June 2000, we reported the discovery, using the Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbiter Camera, of very youthful-looking gullies found on slopes at middle and high latitudes on Mars. Since that time, tens of thousands of gullies have been imaged by all of the Mars orbiting spacecraft: Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, Mars Express and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. During the years since the original June 2000 report, the Mars Global Surveyor's camera was used to test the hypothesis that the gullies may be so young that some of them could still be active today. The test was very simple: re-image gullies previously seen by the camera and see if anything has changed. In two cases, something changed. One of those cases is presented here. A gully on the wall of an unnamed crater in Terra Sirenum, at 36.6 degrees south, 161.8 degrees west, was initially imaged by the camera on Dec. 22, 2001 (Figure A, left). It showed nothing noteworthy at the location where a change would later be observed, but a group of nearby gullies exhibited an unusual patch of light-toned material. As part of our routine campaign to re-image gully sites using the camera, another image of this location was acquired on April 24, 2005. A new light-toned deposit had appeared in what was otherwise a nondescript gully (Figure A, right). This deposit was imaged again by the camera on Aug. 26, 2005, at a time when the sun angle and season were the same as in the original December 2001 image, to confirm that indeed the light-toned feature was something new, not just a trick of differing lighting conditions. In August 2005, the feature was still present. Figure A: This set of images shows a comparison of the gully site as it appeared on Dec. 22, 2001 (left), with a mosaic of two images acquired after the change occurred (the two images are from Aug. 26, 2005, and Sept. 25, 2005). Sunlight illuminates each scene from the northwest (top left). The 150-meter scale bar represents 164 yards. Figure B: This is a mosaic of images that cover the entire unnamed crater in Terra Sirenum. The location of the light-toned gully deposits, old and new, is indicated. This is a mosaic of images acquired by the camera in 2005 and 2006. The 500-meter scale bar equals approximately 547 yards. Figure C: This image shows an enlargement of a portion of another image from August 2005, showing details of the new, light-toned gully deposit. The new material covers the entire gully floor, from the point at which the gully emerged from beneath a mantled slope, down to the spot at which the channel meets the crater floor. At this break in slope, the gully material, as it was emplaced, spread out into five or six different fingers (this is called a "digitate" termination as in finger digits). The 75-meter scale bar represents a distance of about 82 yards. Figure D: To confirm that the new, light-toned gully deposit is not just a trick of changing, Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., a division of the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operates the spacecraft. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., built and operates the Mars Orbiter Camera. For more information about images from the Mars Orbiter Camera, see http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html [ http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html ]., illumination conditions as the sun rises to different levels in the sky each season, the Mars Orbiter Camera team repeatedly imaged this site throughout 2005 and 2006. Four examples are shown here, acquired in April 2005, August 2005, February 2006 and April 2006. The "i=" indicates solar-incidence angle, or the height of the sun in the local sky, relative to a case where the sun would be directly overhead (i=0 degrees). Thus, the higher the incidence angle, the lower the sun would appear in the sky to an observer on the ground. These images show that a material flowed down through a gully channel, once between December 2001 and April 2005. After the flow stopped, it left behind evidence -- the light-toned deposit. The deposit is thin enough that its thickness cannot be measured in the camera's 1.5-meters-per-pixel images. However, it does exhibit a digitate termination, suggesting that the material flowed in a fluid-like manner down the approximately 25 degree slope before splaying out into multiple small lobes at the point where the crater wall meets the crater floor and the slope suddenly drops to near zero. This deposit, and a similar one in a crater in the Centauri Montes, together suggests that the materials involved were low-volume debris flows containing a mixture of sediment and a liquid that had the physical properties of liquid water. In this case, we propose that the water came from below the surface, emerged somewhere beneath the mantle covering the original crater wall, and then ran down through a previously existing gully channel. No new gully was formed, but an old one was re-activated. The light tone of the new gully deposit, and that of the older, neighboring gullies, is intriguing. We cannot know from these images whether the light tone indicates that ice is still present in and on the surface of the deposit. Indeed, ice may not be likely: under present conditions on the surface of Mars, ice would be expected to have sublimed, or vaporized, away fairly shortly after the new deposit formed. However, the light-toned material could be frost that forms and re-forms frequently as trapped water-ice sublimes and "exhales" from within the deposit. Alternatively, the light-tone may result if the deposit consists of significantly finer grains (for example, fine silt) than the surrounding surfaces, or if the deposit's surface is covered with minerals such as salts formed as water evaporated from the material. Do these images prove that water has flowed on Mars? No, they cannot. However, they provide the first very tantalizing evidence that this may have occurred. While the surface environment on Mars is extremely dry, drier than the most arid deserts on Earth, liquid water from beneath the Martian surface may have come out of the ground and flowed across this little portion of the red planet in this decade. The Mars Global Surveyor mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, by NASA's Jet Propulsion
New Gully Deposit in a Crate …
PIA09027
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title New Gully Deposit in a Crater in Terra Sirenum
Original Caption Released with Image Has liquid water flowed on Mars in this decade? In June 2000, we reported the discovery, using the Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbiter Camera, of very youthful-looking gullies found on slopes at middle and high latitudes on Mars. Since that time, tens of thousands of gullies have been imaged by all of the Mars orbiting spacecraft: Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, Mars Express and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. During the years since the original June 2000 report, the Mars Global Surveyor's camera was used to test the hypothesis that the gullies may be so young that some of them could still be active today. The test was very simple: re-image gullies previously seen by the camera and see if anything has changed. In two cases, something changed. One of those cases is presented here. A gully on the wall of an unnamed crater in Terra Sirenum, at 36.6 degrees south, 161.8 degrees west, was initially imaged by the camera on Dec. 22, 2001 (Figure A, left). It showed nothing noteworthy at the location where a change would later be observed, but a group of nearby gullies exhibited an unusual patch of light-toned material. As part of our routine campaign to re-image gully sites using the camera, another image of this location was acquired on April 24, 2005. A new light-toned deposit had appeared in what was otherwise a nondescript gully (Figure A, right). This deposit was imaged again by the camera on Aug. 26, 2005, at a time when the sun angle and season were the same as in the original December 2001 image, to confirm that indeed the light-toned feature was something new, not just a trick of differing lighting conditions. In August 2005, the feature was still present. Figure A: This set of images shows a comparison of the gully site as it appeared on Dec. 22, 2001 (left), with a mosaic of two images acquired after the change occurred (the two images are from Aug. 26, 2005, and Sept. 25, 2005). Sunlight illuminates each scene from the northwest (top left). The 150-meter scale bar represents 164 yards. Figure B: This is a mosaic of images that cover the entire unnamed crater in Terra Sirenum. The location of the light-toned gully deposits, old and new, is indicated. This is a mosaic of images acquired by the camera in 2005 and 2006. The 500-meter scale bar equals approximately 547 yards. Figure C: This image shows an enlargement of a portion of another image from August 2005, showing details of the new, light-toned gully deposit. The new material covers the entire gully floor, from the point at which the gully emerged from beneath a mantled slope, down to the spot at which the channel meets the crater floor. At this break in slope, the gully material, as it was emplaced, spread out into five or six different fingers (this is called a "digitate" termination as in finger digits). The 75-meter scale bar represents a distance of about 82 yards. Figure D: To confirm that the new, light-toned gully deposit is not just a trick of changing, Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., a division of the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operates the spacecraft. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., built and operates the Mars Orbiter Camera. For more information about images from the Mars Orbiter Camera, see http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html [ http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html ]., illumination conditions as the sun rises to different levels in the sky each season, the Mars Orbiter Camera team repeatedly imaged this site throughout 2005 and 2006. Four examples are shown here, acquired in April 2005, August 2005, February 2006 and April 2006. The "i=" indicates solar-incidence angle, or the height of the sun in the local sky, relative to a case where the sun would be directly overhead (i=0 degrees). Thus, the higher the incidence angle, the lower the sun would appear in the sky to an observer on the ground. These images show that a material flowed down through a gully channel, once between December 2001 and April 2005. After the flow stopped, it left behind evidence -- the light-toned deposit. The deposit is thin enough that its thickness cannot be measured in the camera's 1.5-meters-per-pixel images. However, it does exhibit a digitate termination, suggesting that the material flowed in a fluid-like manner down the approximately 25 degree slope before splaying out into multiple small lobes at the point where the crater wall meets the crater floor and the slope suddenly drops to near zero. This deposit, and a similar one in a crater in the Centauri Montes, together suggests that the materials involved were low-volume debris flows containing a mixture of sediment and a liquid that had the physical properties of liquid water. In this case, we propose that the water came from below the surface, emerged somewhere beneath the mantle covering the original crater wall, and then ran down through a previously existing gully channel. No new gully was formed, but an old one was re-activated. The light tone of the new gully deposit, and that of the older, neighboring gullies, is intriguing. We cannot know from these images whether the light tone indicates that ice is still present in and on the surface of the deposit. Indeed, ice may not be likely: under present conditions on the surface of Mars, ice would be expected to have sublimed, or vaporized, away fairly shortly after the new deposit formed. However, the light-toned material could be frost that forms and re-forms frequently as trapped water-ice sublimes and "exhales" from within the deposit. Alternatively, the light-tone may result if the deposit consists of significantly finer grains (for example, fine silt) than the surrounding surfaces, or if the deposit's surface is covered with minerals such as salts formed as water evaporated from the material. Do these images prove that water has flowed on Mars? No, they cannot. However, they provide the first very tantalizing evidence that this may have occurred. While the surface environment on Mars is extremely dry, drier than the most arid deserts on Earth, liquid water from beneath the Martian surface may have come out of the ground and flowed across this little portion of the red planet in this decade. The Mars Global Surveyor mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, by NASA's Jet Propulsion
New Gully Deposit in a Crate …
PIA09027
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title New Gully Deposit in a Crater in Terra Sirenum
Original Caption Released with Image Has liquid water flowed on Mars in this decade? In June 2000, we reported the discovery, using the Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbiter Camera, of very youthful-looking gullies found on slopes at middle and high latitudes on Mars. Since that time, tens of thousands of gullies have been imaged by all of the Mars orbiting spacecraft: Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, Mars Express and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. During the years since the original June 2000 report, the Mars Global Surveyor's camera was used to test the hypothesis that the gullies may be so young that some of them could still be active today. The test was very simple: re-image gullies previously seen by the camera and see if anything has changed. In two cases, something changed. One of those cases is presented here. A gully on the wall of an unnamed crater in Terra Sirenum, at 36.6 degrees south, 161.8 degrees west, was initially imaged by the camera on Dec. 22, 2001 (Figure A, left). It showed nothing noteworthy at the location where a change would later be observed, but a group of nearby gullies exhibited an unusual patch of light-toned material. As part of our routine campaign to re-image gully sites using the camera, another image of this location was acquired on April 24, 2005. A new light-toned deposit had appeared in what was otherwise a nondescript gully (Figure A, right). This deposit was imaged again by the camera on Aug. 26, 2005, at a time when the sun angle and season were the same as in the original December 2001 image, to confirm that indeed the light-toned feature was something new, not just a trick of differing lighting conditions. In August 2005, the feature was still present. Figure A: This set of images shows a comparison of the gully site as it appeared on Dec. 22, 2001 (left), with a mosaic of two images acquired after the change occurred (the two images are from Aug. 26, 2005, and Sept. 25, 2005). Sunlight illuminates each scene from the northwest (top left). The 150-meter scale bar represents 164 yards. Figure B: This is a mosaic of images that cover the entire unnamed crater in Terra Sirenum. The location of the light-toned gully deposits, old and new, is indicated. This is a mosaic of images acquired by the camera in 2005 and 2006. The 500-meter scale bar equals approximately 547 yards. Figure C: This image shows an enlargement of a portion of another image from August 2005, showing details of the new, light-toned gully deposit. The new material covers the entire gully floor, from the point at which the gully emerged from beneath a mantled slope, down to the spot at which the channel meets the crater floor. At this break in slope, the gully material, as it was emplaced, spread out into five or six different fingers (this is called a "digitate" termination as in finger digits). The 75-meter scale bar represents a distance of about 82 yards. Figure D: To confirm that the new, light-toned gully deposit is not just a trick of changing, Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., a division of the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operates the spacecraft. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., built and operates the Mars Orbiter Camera. For more information about images from the Mars Orbiter Camera, see http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html [ http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html ]., illumination conditions as the sun rises to different levels in the sky each season, the Mars Orbiter Camera team repeatedly imaged this site throughout 2005 and 2006. Four examples are shown here, acquired in April 2005, August 2005, February 2006 and April 2006. The "i=" indicates solar-incidence angle, or the height of the sun in the local sky, relative to a case where the sun would be directly overhead (i=0 degrees). Thus, the higher the incidence angle, the lower the sun would appear in the sky to an observer on the ground. These images show that a material flowed down through a gully channel, once between December 2001 and April 2005. After the flow stopped, it left behind evidence -- the light-toned deposit. The deposit is thin enough that its thickness cannot be measured in the camera's 1.5-meters-per-pixel images. However, it does exhibit a digitate termination, suggesting that the material flowed in a fluid-like manner down the approximately 25 degree slope before splaying out into multiple small lobes at the point where the crater wall meets the crater floor and the slope suddenly drops to near zero. This deposit, and a similar one in a crater in the Centauri Montes, together suggests that the materials involved were low-volume debris flows containing a mixture of sediment and a liquid that had the physical properties of liquid water. In this case, we propose that the water came from below the surface, emerged somewhere beneath the mantle covering the original crater wall, and then ran down through a previously existing gully channel. No new gully was formed, but an old one was re-activated. The light tone of the new gully deposit, and that of the older, neighboring gullies, is intriguing. We cannot know from these images whether the light tone indicates that ice is still present in and on the surface of the deposit. Indeed, ice may not be likely: under present conditions on the surface of Mars, ice would be expected to have sublimed, or vaporized, away fairly shortly after the new deposit formed. However, the light-toned material could be frost that forms and re-forms frequently as trapped water-ice sublimes and "exhales" from within the deposit. Alternatively, the light-tone may result if the deposit consists of significantly finer grains (for example, fine silt) than the surrounding surfaces, or if the deposit's surface is covered with minerals such as salts formed as water evaporated from the material. Do these images prove that water has flowed on Mars? No, they cannot. However, they provide the first very tantalizing evidence that this may have occurred. While the surface environment on Mars is extremely dry, drier than the most arid deserts on Earth, liquid water from beneath the Martian surface may have come out of the ground and flowed across this little portion of the red planet in this decade. The Mars Global Surveyor mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, by NASA's Jet Propulsion
New Gully Deposit in a Crate …
PIA09027
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title New Gully Deposit in a Crater in Terra Sirenum
Original Caption Released with Image Has liquid water flowed on Mars in this decade? In June 2000, we reported the discovery, using the Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbiter Camera, of very youthful-looking gullies found on slopes at middle and high latitudes on Mars. Since that time, tens of thousands of gullies have been imaged by all of the Mars orbiting spacecraft: Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, Mars Express and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. During the years since the original June 2000 report, the Mars Global Surveyor's camera was used to test the hypothesis that the gullies may be so young that some of them could still be active today. The test was very simple: re-image gullies previously seen by the camera and see if anything has changed. In two cases, something changed. One of those cases is presented here. A gully on the wall of an unnamed crater in Terra Sirenum, at 36.6 degrees south, 161.8 degrees west, was initially imaged by the camera on Dec. 22, 2001 (Figure A, left). It showed nothing noteworthy at the location where a change would later be observed, but a group of nearby gullies exhibited an unusual patch of light-toned material. As part of our routine campaign to re-image gully sites using the camera, another image of this location was acquired on April 24, 2005. A new light-toned deposit had appeared in what was otherwise a nondescript gully (Figure A, right). This deposit was imaged again by the camera on Aug. 26, 2005, at a time when the sun angle and season were the same as in the original December 2001 image, to confirm that indeed the light-toned feature was something new, not just a trick of differing lighting conditions. In August 2005, the feature was still present. Figure A: This set of images shows a comparison of the gully site as it appeared on Dec. 22, 2001 (left), with a mosaic of two images acquired after the change occurred (the two images are from Aug. 26, 2005, and Sept. 25, 2005). Sunlight illuminates each scene from the northwest (top left). The 150-meter scale bar represents 164 yards. Figure B: This is a mosaic of images that cover the entire unnamed crater in Terra Sirenum. The location of the light-toned gully deposits, old and new, is indicated. This is a mosaic of images acquired by the camera in 2005 and 2006. The 500-meter scale bar equals approximately 547 yards. Figure C: This image shows an enlargement of a portion of another image from August 2005, showing details of the new, light-toned gully deposit. The new material covers the entire gully floor, from the point at which the gully emerged from beneath a mantled slope, down to the spot at which the channel meets the crater floor. At this break in slope, the gully material, as it was emplaced, spread out into five or six different fingers (this is called a "digitate" termination as in finger digits). The 75-meter scale bar represents a distance of about 82 yards. Figure D: To confirm that the new, light-toned gully deposit is not just a trick of changing, Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., a division of the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operates the spacecraft. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., built and operates the Mars Orbiter Camera. For more information about images from the Mars Orbiter Camera, see http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html [ http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html ]., illumination conditions as the sun rises to different levels in the sky each season, the Mars Orbiter Camera team repeatedly imaged this site throughout 2005 and 2006. Four examples are shown here, acquired in April 2005, August 2005, February 2006 and April 2006. The "i=" indicates solar-incidence angle, or the height of the sun in the local sky, relative to a case where the sun would be directly overhead (i=0 degrees). Thus, the higher the incidence angle, the lower the sun would appear in the sky to an observer on the ground. These images show that a material flowed down through a gully channel, once between December 2001 and April 2005. After the flow stopped, it left behind evidence -- the light-toned deposit. The deposit is thin enough that its thickness cannot be measured in the camera's 1.5-meters-per-pixel images. However, it does exhibit a digitate termination, suggesting that the material flowed in a fluid-like manner down the approximately 25 degree slope before splaying out into multiple small lobes at the point where the crater wall meets the crater floor and the slope suddenly drops to near zero. This deposit, and a similar one in a crater in the Centauri Montes, together suggests that the materials involved were low-volume debris flows containing a mixture of sediment and a liquid that had the physical properties of liquid water. In this case, we propose that the water came from below the surface, emerged somewhere beneath the mantle covering the original crater wall, and then ran down through a previously existing gully channel. No new gully was formed, but an old one was re-activated. The light tone of the new gully deposit, and that of the older, neighboring gullies, is intriguing. We cannot know from these images whether the light tone indicates that ice is still present in and on the surface of the deposit. Indeed, ice may not be likely: under present conditions on the surface of Mars, ice would be expected to have sublimed, or vaporized, away fairly shortly after the new deposit formed. However, the light-toned material could be frost that forms and re-forms frequently as trapped water-ice sublimes and "exhales" from within the deposit. Alternatively, the light-tone may result if the deposit consists of significantly finer grains (for example, fine silt) than the surrounding surfaces, or if the deposit's surface is covered with minerals such as salts formed as water evaporated from the material. Do these images prove that water has flowed on Mars? No, they cannot. However, they provide the first very tantalizing evidence that this may have occurred. While the surface environment on Mars is extremely dry, drier than the most arid deserts on Earth, liquid water from beneath the Martian surface may have come out of the ground and flowed across this little portion of the red planet in this decade. The Mars Global Surveyor mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, by NASA's Jet Propulsion
New Gully Deposit in a Crate …
PIA09027
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title New Gully Deposit in a Crater in Terra Sirenum
Original Caption Released with Image Has liquid water flowed on Mars in this decade? In June 2000, we reported the discovery, using the Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbiter Camera, of very youthful-looking gullies found on slopes at middle and high latitudes on Mars. Since that time, tens of thousands of gullies have been imaged by all of the Mars orbiting spacecraft: Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, Mars Express and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. During the years since the original June 2000 report, the Mars Global Surveyor's camera was used to test the hypothesis that the gullies may be so young that some of them could still be active today. The test was very simple: re-image gullies previously seen by the camera and see if anything has changed. In two cases, something changed. One of those cases is presented here. A gully on the wall of an unnamed crater in Terra Sirenum, at 36.6 degrees south, 161.8 degrees west, was initially imaged by the camera on Dec. 22, 2001 (Figure A, left). It showed nothing noteworthy at the location where a change would later be observed, but a group of nearby gullies exhibited an unusual patch of light-toned material. As part of our routine campaign to re-image gully sites using the camera, another image of this location was acquired on April 24, 2005. A new light-toned deposit had appeared in what was otherwise a nondescript gully (Figure A, right). This deposit was imaged again by the camera on Aug. 26, 2005, at a time when the sun angle and season were the same as in the original December 2001 image, to confirm that indeed the light-toned feature was something new, not just a trick of differing lighting conditions. In August 2005, the feature was still present. Figure A: This set of images shows a comparison of the gully site as it appeared on Dec. 22, 2001 (left), with a mosaic of two images acquired after the change occurred (the two images are from Aug. 26, 2005, and Sept. 25, 2005). Sunlight illuminates each scene from the northwest (top left). The 150-meter scale bar represents 164 yards. Figure B: This is a mosaic of images that cover the entire unnamed crater in Terra Sirenum. The location of the light-toned gully deposits, old and new, is indicated. This is a mosaic of images acquired by the camera in 2005 and 2006. The 500-meter scale bar equals approximately 547 yards. Figure C: This image shows an enlargement of a portion of another image from August 2005, showing details of the new, light-toned gully deposit. The new material covers the entire gully floor, from the point at which the gully emerged from beneath a mantled slope, down to the spot at which the channel meets the crater floor. At this break in slope, the gully material, as it was emplaced, spread out into five or six different fingers (this is called a "digitate" termination as in finger digits). The 75-meter scale bar represents a distance of about 82 yards. Figure D: To confirm that the new, light-toned gully deposit is not just a trick of changing, Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., a division of the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operates the spacecraft. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., built and operates the Mars Orbiter Camera. For more information about images from the Mars Orbiter Camera, see http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html [ http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html ]., illumination conditions as the sun rises to different levels in the sky each season, the Mars Orbiter Camera team repeatedly imaged this site throughout 2005 and 2006. Four examples are shown here, acquired in April 2005, August 2005, February 2006 and April 2006. The "i=" indicates solar-incidence angle, or the height of the sun in the local sky, relative to a case where the sun would be directly overhead (i=0 degrees). Thus, the higher the incidence angle, the lower the sun would appear in the sky to an observer on the ground. These images show that a material flowed down through a gully channel, once between December 2001 and April 2005. After the flow stopped, it left behind evidence -- the light-toned deposit. The deposit is thin enough that its thickness cannot be measured in the camera's 1.5-meters-per-pixel images. However, it does exhibit a digitate termination, suggesting that the material flowed in a fluid-like manner down the approximately 25 degree slope before splaying out into multiple small lobes at the point where the crater wall meets the crater floor and the slope suddenly drops to near zero. This deposit, and a similar one in a crater in the Centauri Montes, together suggests that the materials involved were low-volume debris flows containing a mixture of sediment and a liquid that had the physical properties of liquid water. In this case, we propose that the water came from below the surface, emerged somewhere beneath the mantle covering the original crater wall, and then ran down through a previously existing gully channel. No new gully was formed, but an old one was re-activated. The light tone of the new gully deposit, and that of the older, neighboring gullies, is intriguing. We cannot know from these images whether the light tone indicates that ice is still present in and on the surface of the deposit. Indeed, ice may not be likely: under present conditions on the surface of Mars, ice would be expected to have sublimed, or vaporized, away fairly shortly after the new deposit formed. However, the light-toned material could be frost that forms and re-forms frequently as trapped water-ice sublimes and "exhales" from within the deposit. Alternatively, the light-tone may result if the deposit consists of significantly finer grains (for example, fine silt) than the surrounding surfaces, or if the deposit's surface is covered with minerals such as salts formed as water evaporated from the material. Do these images prove that water has flowed on Mars? No, they cannot. However, they provide the first very tantalizing evidence that this may have occurred. While the surface environment on Mars is extremely dry, drier than the most arid deserts on Earth, liquid water from beneath the Martian surface may have come out of the ground and flowed across this little portion of the red planet in this decade. The Mars Global Surveyor mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Wind-Eroded Landscape
PIA04134
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Wind-Eroded Landscape
Original Caption Released with Image 5 August 2005 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a dust-mantled, wind-eroded landscape in the Medusae Sulci region of Mars. Wind eroded the bedrock in this region, and then, later, windblown dust covered much of the terrain. "Location near": 5.7°S, 160.2°W "Image width": width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": lower left "Season": Southern Spring
Oudemans Layers
PIA03072
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Oudemans Layers
Original Caption Released with Image 27 October 2005 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows outcrops of light-toned, layered rock exposed in the central peak of Oudemans Crater, near the Labyrinthus Noctis of the western Valles Marineris complex. The rocks in this August 2005 image were once below the ground and flat-lying. Now they are tilted on edge-a product of the impact that formed Oudemans Crater. Their regular layering and light tone suggest these might be ancient sedimentary rocks. "Location near": 10.0°S, 92.1°W "Image width": width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": lower left "Season": Southern Spring
Rind-Like Features at a Meri …
PIA04158
Sol (our sun)
Panoramic Camera
Title Rind-Like Features at a Meridiani Outcrop
Original Caption Released with Image After months spent roving across a sea of rippled sands, Opportunity reached an outcrop in August 2005 and began investigating exposures of sedimentary rocks, intriguing rind-like features that appear to cap the rocks, and cobbles that dot the martian surface locally. Opportunity spent several sols analyzing a feature called "Lemon Rind," a thin surface layer covering portions of outcrop rocks poking through the sand north of "Erebus Crater." In images from the panoramic camera, Lemon Rind appears slightly different in color than surrounding rocks. It also appears to be slightly more resistant to wind erosion than the outcrop's interior. To obtain information on how this surface layer (or weathering rind) may have formed and how it compares to previously analyzed outcrops, Opportunity is using the microscopic imager, alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and Moessbauer spectrometer to analyze surfaces that have been brushed and ground with the rock abrasion tool. Scientists will compare these measurements with similar measurements made on the underlying rock material. This is a false-color composite generated by draping enhanced red-green-blue color from the panoramic camera's 753-nanometer, 535-nanometer and 482-nanometer filters over a high-fidelity violet, 432-nanometer-filter image. The image was acquired on martian day, or sol 552 (Aug. 13, 2005) around 11:55 a.m. local true solar time. In this representation, bright sulfur-bearing sedimentary rocks appear light tan to brown, depending on their degree of dust contamination, and small dark "blueberries" and other much less dusty rock fragments appear as different shades of blue. Draping the color derived from the blue to near-infrared filters over the violet filter image results in a false color view with the sharpest color and morphology contrasts.
Rind-Like Features at a Meri …
PIA04189
Sol (our sun)
Panoramic Camera
Title Rind-Like Features at a Meridiani Outcrop
Original Caption Released with Image Annotated image of PIA04189 Rind-Like Features at a Meridiani Outcrop After months spent crossing a sea of rippled sands, Opportunity reached an outcrop in August 2005 and began investigating exposures of sedimentary rocks, intriguing rind-like features that appear to cap the rocks, and cobbles that dot the martian surface locally. Opportunity spent several martian days, or sols, analyzing a feature called "Lemon Rind," a thin surface layer covering portions of outcrop rocks poking through the sand north of "Erebus Crater." In images from the panoramic camera, Lemon Rind appears slightly different in color than surrounding rocks. It also appears to be slightly more resistant to wind erosion than the outcrop's interior. This is an approximately true-color composite produced from frames taken during Opportunity's 552nd martian day, or sol (Aug. 13, 2005).
Rind-Like Features at a Meri …
PIA04189
Sol (our sun)
Panoramic Camera
Title Rind-Like Features at a Meridiani Outcrop
Original Caption Released with Image Annotated image of PIA04189 Rind-Like Features at a Meridiani Outcrop After months spent crossing a sea of rippled sands, Opportunity reached an outcrop in August 2005 and began investigating exposures of sedimentary rocks, intriguing rind-like features that appear to cap the rocks, and cobbles that dot the martian surface locally. Opportunity spent several martian days, or sols, analyzing a feature called "Lemon Rind," a thin surface layer covering portions of outcrop rocks poking through the sand north of "Erebus Crater." In images from the panoramic camera, Lemon Rind appears slightly different in color than surrounding rocks. It also appears to be slightly more resistant to wind erosion than the outcrop's interior. This is an approximately true-color composite produced from frames taken during Opportunity's 552nd martian day, or sol (Aug. 13, 2005).
Telescopic Camera for Mars R …
PIA07087
HiRISE
Title Telescopic Camera for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Front End
Original Caption Released with Image The high resolution imaging science experiment (Hirise) is one of six science instruments for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The orbiter is scheduled for launch in August 2005. This instrument is designed to produce the most detailed pictures of Mars ever taken from orbit, revealing surface details as small as a meter (3 feet) across. In this photograph, a worker at Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo., prepares the instrument before it is shipped for attachment to the spacecraft.
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