|
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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 |
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Eberswalde Delta in High Res
…
| title |
Eberswalde Delta in High Resolution |
| Description |
Scientifically, perhaps the most important result from use of the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor during that spacecraft's extended mission has been the discovery and documentation of a fossil delta. The feature is located in a crater northeast of Holden Crater, near 24.0 degrees south latitude, 33.7 degrees west longitude. Since the announcement of the discovery of the delta in November 2003, the International Astronomical Union has provided a provisional name (pending final approval) for the crater in which the landforms occur. The crater has been named Eberswalde, for a town in Germany. This image offers a higher-resolution view of a portion of the fossil delta than any seen earlier. North is up. At the bottom of the frame, the image includes the north end of a looping, inverted, meandering channel. The image covers an area of about 3 by 3 kilometers (1.9 x 1.9 miles). It was produced using a technique called "compensated pitch and roll targeted observation," in which the rotation rate of the spacecraft is adjusted to match the ground speed under the camera. At full resolution, this map-projected image is at 50 centimeters (20 inches) per pixel. Additional images from Mars Orbiter Camera provide some context and show a nearby portion of the fossil delta's inverted channels at a spatial scale of 1.5 meters (about 5 feet) per pixel. The relative positions of these three images are indicated in a mosaic image of the entire delta, for which the unmarked version was released in November 2003. The first Mars Orbiter Camera narrow angle images of some of the landforms in the delta were acquired in 2000, during the Mars Global Surveyor primary mission, but those pictures did not show very well the unambiguous inverted channel forms. Not until the second Earth year of the orbiter's extended mission were the deltaic features recognized in Mars Orbiter Camera images obtained in March and June of 2002. Following the initial observations in 2002, the Mars Orbiter Camera team began a systematic effort to map the entire Eberswalde Crater delta. Most of this imaging required slewing the whole spacecraft in a technique called "roll only targeted observation" so that it pointed the camera toward the feature. In this way, the camera team was able to build up a mosaic of the delta much more quickly than would have been the case if the team had simply relied upon chance crossing of the delta by the orbiter's usual ground track. This technique was not employed during Mars Global Surveyor's primary mission, except in the search for Mars Polar Lander, but became a routine part of the tool kit during the extended mission. Even with the "roll only targeted observation" technique, it took more than one Earth year to build up a complete mosaic of images of the delta. In the meantime, the first data showing the deltaic landforms were archived and released to the public and scientific community, long before the Mars Orbiter Camera team's, analysis and mosaic were complete. Some scientists began independent analyses of the landform at that time. The initial analysis and announcement of the feature was finally published in November 2003. The Eberswalde delta provides the first clear, "smoking gun" evidence that some valleys on Mars experienced persistent flow of a liquid with the physical properties of water over an extended period of time, as do rivers on Earth. In addition, because the delta today is lithified -- that is, hardened to form rock -- it provided the first unambiguous evidence that some martian sedimentary rocks were deposited in a liquid (presumably, water) environment. The presence of meandering channels, a cut-off meander, and crisscrossing channels at different elevations (one above the other), provided the clear geologic evidence for these interpretations. After the sediments were deposited to form the delta, the material was further buried by other materials -- probably sediments -- that are no longer present. The entire package of buried material became cemented and hardened to form rock. Later, erosive processes such as wind stripped away the overlying rock, re-exposing the delta. Now preserved essentially as a fossil, the former floors of channels in the delta became inverted, to form ridges, by erosion. Channels can be inverted by erosion on both Earth and Mars. Usually this happens when the channel floor, or the material filling the channel, is harder to erode than the surrounding material into which the channel was cut. In some cases, the channels on Earth and Mars have been filled by lava to make them more resistant to erosion. In the case of Eberswalde, there are no lava flows, instead, the channel floors may have been rendered resistant to erosion either by being better-cemented than the surrounding material, or composed of coarser-grained sediment (such as sand and gravel as opposed to silt), or both. 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 |
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Devil's Den in Terra Sirenum
PIA04858
Sol (our sun)
Thermal Emission Imaging Sys
…
| Title |
Devil's Den in Terra Sirenum |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Released 6 November 2003 A multitude of dust devil streaks are easily seen in this THEMIS image. Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -52.7, Longitude 206 East (154 West). 19 meter/pixel resolution. Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. |
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Devil's Den in Terra Sirenum
PIA04858
Sol (our sun)
Thermal Emission Imaging Sys
…
| Title |
Devil's Den in Terra Sirenum |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Released 6 November 2003 A multitude of dust devil streaks are easily seen in this THEMIS image. Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -52.7, Longitude 206 East (154 West). 19 meter/pixel resolution. Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. |
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Layers and Erosion and more
…
PIA04847
Sol (our sun)
Thermal Emission Imaging Sys
…
| Title |
Layers and Erosion and more Layers |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Released 4 November 2003 This image is located within a set of eroded layered rocks known as the Medusae Fossae Formation. Careful inspection of this image reveals four separate layers. Starting at the bottom of the image, as well as the bottom of the sequence of layers, is a somewhat hilly, cratered plain. Above that is a mud or lava flow with a lobate edge that is characteristic of fluid flow. Above that is a layer with a spectacular rayed crater. This layer shows linear erosional patterns that are probably caused by persistent wind abrasion, typical of rocks in this area. And finally, a more blocky unit lies on top, mostly eroded away. Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 3.6, Longitude 218.6 East (141.4 West). 19 meter/pixel resolution. Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. |
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Layers and Erosion and more
…
PIA04847
Sol (our sun)
Thermal Emission Imaging Sys
…
| Title |
Layers and Erosion and more Layers |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Released 4 November 2003 This image is located within a set of eroded layered rocks known as the Medusae Fossae Formation. Careful inspection of this image reveals four separate layers. Starting at the bottom of the image, as well as the bottom of the sequence of layers, is a somewhat hilly, cratered plain. Above that is a mud or lava flow with a lobate edge that is characteristic of fluid flow. Above that is a layer with a spectacular rayed crater. This layer shows linear erosional patterns that are probably caused by persistent wind abrasion, typical of rocks in this area. And finally, a more blocky unit lies on top, mostly eroded away. Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 3.6, Longitude 218.6 East (141.4 West). 19 meter/pixel resolution. Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. |
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Sand and Water
PIA04859
Sol (our sun)
Thermal Emission Imaging Sys
…
| Title |
Sand and Water |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Released 7 November 2003 This image shows a relatively small crater (~35 km across) in the heavily cratered terrain of the southern highlands. At the midlatitudes, this area is known both for its water-formed gullies and its sand dunes. This crater shows spectacular examples of both. In fact, the gullies running down the northern edge of the crater made it to the cover of Science magazine on June 30, 2000. The large dark spot in the floor of the crater is sand that has accumulated into one large dune with a single curvilinear crest. Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -54.9, Longitude 17.5 East (342.5 West). 19 meter/pixel resolution. Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. |
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Sand and Water
PIA04859
Sol (our sun)
Thermal Emission Imaging Sys
…
| Title |
Sand and Water |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Released 7 November 2003 This image shows a relatively small crater (~35 km across) in the heavily cratered terrain of the southern highlands. At the midlatitudes, this area is known both for its water-formed gullies and its sand dunes. This crater shows spectacular examples of both. In fact, the gullies running down the northern edge of the crater made it to the cover of Science magazine on June 30, 2000. The large dark spot in the floor of the crater is sand that has accumulated into one large dune with a single curvilinear crest. Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -54.9, Longitude 17.5 East (342.5 West). 19 meter/pixel resolution. Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. |
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Battered Terrain of Amenthes
PIA04846
Sol (our sun)
Thermal Emission Imaging Sys
…
| Title |
Battered Terrain of Amenthes |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Released 3 November 2003 This region of the cratered highlands looks very ancient. A degraded channel snakes its way across the scene and enters what may be an older crater. The channel then continues onward. Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 1.8, Longitude 116.9 East (243.1 West). 19 meter/pixel resolution. Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. |
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Battered Terrain of Amenthes
PIA04846
Sol (our sun)
Thermal Emission Imaging Sys
…
| Title |
Battered Terrain of Amenthes |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Released 3 November 2003 This region of the cratered highlands looks very ancient. A degraded channel snakes its way across the scene and enters what may be an older crater. The channel then continues onward. Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 1.8, Longitude 116.9 East (243.1 West). 19 meter/pixel resolution. Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. |
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Layers in Meridiani Planum
PIA04857
Sol (our sun)
Thermal Emission Imaging Sys
…
| Title |
Layers in Meridiani Planum |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Released 5 November 2003 Less than 100 km from an outlier of the hematite deposit [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04840 ], a 30 km-diameter crater displays layers of eroding material, none of which contains hematite. The layers are evident from their variation in brightness and texture. At least four are apparent, with the lowermost one occurring in the upper right of the frame and the uppermost one extending out of the crater onto the surrounding plain. Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 2.2, Longitude 1.6 East (358.4 West). 19 meter/pixel resolution. Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. |
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Layers in Meridiani Planum
PIA04857
Sol (our sun)
Thermal Emission Imaging Sys
…
| Title |
Layers in Meridiani Planum |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Released 5 November 2003 Less than 100 km from an outlier of the hematite deposit [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04840 ], a 30 km-diameter crater displays layers of eroding material, none of which contains hematite. The layers are evident from their variation in brightness and texture. At least four are apparent, with the lowermost one occurring in the upper right of the frame and the uppermost one extending out of the crater onto the surrounding plain. Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 2.2, Longitude 1.6 East (358.4 West). 19 meter/pixel resolution. Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. |
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Eberswalde Delta in High Res
…
PIA04293
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Eberswalde Delta in High Resolution |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
). The first Mars Orbiter Camera narrow angle images of some of the landforms in the delta were acquired in 2000, during the Mars Global Surveyor primary mission, but those pictures did not show very well the unambiguous inverted channel forms. Not until the second Earth year of the orbiter's extended mission were the deltaic features recognized in Mars Orbiter Camera images obtained in March and June of 2002. Following the initial observations in 2002, the Mars Orbiter Camera team began a systematic effort to map the entire Eberswalde Crater delta. Most of this imaging required slewing the whole spacecraft in a technique called "roll only targeted observation" so that it pointed the camera toward the feature. In this way, the camera team was able to build up a mosaic of the delta much more quickly than would have been the case if the team had simply relied upon chance crossing of the delta by the orbiter's usual ground track. This technique was not employed during Mars Global Surveyor's primary mission, except in the search for Mars Polar Lander, but became a routine part of the tool kit during the extended mission. Even with the "roll only targeted observation" technique, it took more than one Earth year to build up a complete mosaic of images of the delta. In the meantime, the first data showing the deltaic landforms were archived and released to the public and scientific community, long before the Mars Orbiter Camera team's analysis and mosaic were complete. Some scientists began independent analyses of the landform at that time. The initial analysis and announcement of the feature was finally published in November 2003. The Eberswalde delta provides the first clear, "smoking gun" evidence that some valleys on Mars experienced persistent flow of a liquid with the physical properties of water over an extended period of time, as do rivers on Earth. In addition, because the delta today is lithified -- that is, hardened to form rock -- it provided the first unambiguous evidence that some martian sedimentary rocks were deposited in a liquid (presumably, water) environment. The presence of meandering channels, a cut-off meander, and crisscrossing channels at different elevations (one above the other), provided the clear geologic evidence for these interpretations. After the sediments were deposited to form the delta, the material was further buried by other materials -- probably sediments -- that are no longer present. The entire package of buried material became cemented and hardened to form rock. Later, erosive processes such as wind stripped away the overlying rock, re-exposing the delta. Now preserved essentially as a fossil, the former floors of channels in the delta became inverted, to form ridges, by erosion. Channels can be inverted by erosion on both Earth and Mars. Usually this happens when the channel floor, or the material filling the channel, is harder to erode than the surrounding material into which the channel was cut. In, Scientifically, perhaps the most important result from use of the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor during that spacecraft's extended mission has been the discovery and documentation of a fossil delta. The feature is located in a crater northeast of Holden Crater, near 24.0 degrees south latitude, 33.7 degrees west longitude. Since the announcement of the discovery of the delta in November 2003, the International Astronomical Union has provided a provisional name (pending final approval) for the crater in which the landforms occur. The crater has been named Eberswalde, for a town in Germany. This image offers a higher-resolution view of a portion of the fossil delta than any seen earlier. North is up. At the bottom of the frame, the image includes the north end of a looping, inverted, meandering channel. The image covers an area of about 3 by 3 kilometers (1.9 x 1.9 miles). It was produced using a technique called "compensated pitch and roll targeted observation," in which the rotation rate of the spacecraft is adjusted to match the ground speed under the camera. At full resolution, this map-projected image is at 50 centimeters (20 inches) per pixel. Additional images from Mars Orbiter Camera provide some context (figure 4) and show a nearby portion of the fossil delta's inverted channels (figure 5) at a spatial scale of 1.5 meters (about 5 feet) per pixel. The relative positions of these three images are indicated in a mosaic image of the entire delta (figure 1), for which the unmarked version was released in November 2003 (PIA04869 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04869 ], some cases, the channels on Earth and Mars have been filled by lava to make them more resistant to erosion. In the case of Eberswalde, there are no lava flows, instead, the channel floors may have been rendered resistant to erosion either by being better-cemented than the surrounding material, or composed of coarser-grained sediment (such as sand and gravel as opposed to silt), or both. 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. |
|
Eberswalde Delta in High Res
…
PIA04293
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Eberswalde Delta in High Resolution |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
). The first Mars Orbiter Camera narrow angle images of some of the landforms in the delta were acquired in 2000, during the Mars Global Surveyor primary mission, but those pictures did not show very well the unambiguous inverted channel forms. Not until the second Earth year of the orbiter's extended mission were the deltaic features recognized in Mars Orbiter Camera images obtained in March and June of 2002. Following the initial observations in 2002, the Mars Orbiter Camera team began a systematic effort to map the entire Eberswalde Crater delta. Most of this imaging required slewing the whole spacecraft in a technique called "roll only targeted observation" so that it pointed the camera toward the feature. In this way, the camera team was able to build up a mosaic of the delta much more quickly than would have been the case if the team had simply relied upon chance crossing of the delta by the orbiter's usual ground track. This technique was not employed during Mars Global Surveyor's primary mission, except in the search for Mars Polar Lander, but became a routine part of the tool kit during the extended mission. Even with the "roll only targeted observation" technique, it took more than one Earth year to build up a complete mosaic of images of the delta. In the meantime, the first data showing the deltaic landforms were archived and released to the public and scientific community, long before the Mars Orbiter Camera team's analysis and mosaic were complete. Some scientists began independent analyses of the landform at that time. The initial analysis and announcement of the feature was finally published in November 2003. The Eberswalde delta provides the first clear, "smoking gun" evidence that some valleys on Mars experienced persistent flow of a liquid with the physical properties of water over an extended period of time, as do rivers on Earth. In addition, because the delta today is lithified -- that is, hardened to form rock -- it provided the first unambiguous evidence that some martian sedimentary rocks were deposited in a liquid (presumably, water) environment. The presence of meandering channels, a cut-off meander, and crisscrossing channels at different elevations (one above the other), provided the clear geologic evidence for these interpretations. After the sediments were deposited to form the delta, the material was further buried by other materials -- probably sediments -- that are no longer present. The entire package of buried material became cemented and hardened to form rock. Later, erosive processes such as wind stripped away the overlying rock, re-exposing the delta. Now preserved essentially as a fossil, the former floors of channels in the delta became inverted, to form ridges, by erosion. Channels can be inverted by erosion on both Earth and Mars. Usually this happens when the channel floor, or the material filling the channel, is harder to erode than the surrounding material into which the channel was cut. In, Scientifically, perhaps the most important result from use of the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor during that spacecraft's extended mission has been the discovery and documentation of a fossil delta. The feature is located in a crater northeast of Holden Crater, near 24.0 degrees south latitude, 33.7 degrees west longitude. Since the announcement of the discovery of the delta in November 2003, the International Astronomical Union has provided a provisional name (pending final approval) for the crater in which the landforms occur. The crater has been named Eberswalde, for a town in Germany. This image offers a higher-resolution view of a portion of the fossil delta than any seen earlier. North is up. At the bottom of the frame, the image includes the north end of a looping, inverted, meandering channel. The image covers an area of about 3 by 3 kilometers (1.9 x 1.9 miles). It was produced using a technique called "compensated pitch and roll targeted observation," in which the rotation rate of the spacecraft is adjusted to match the ground speed under the camera. At full resolution, this map-projected image is at 50 centimeters (20 inches) per pixel. Additional images from Mars Orbiter Camera provide some context (figure 4) and show a nearby portion of the fossil delta's inverted channels (figure 5) at a spatial scale of 1.5 meters (about 5 feet) per pixel. The relative positions of these three images are indicated in a mosaic image of the entire delta (figure 1), for which the unmarked version was released in November 2003 (PIA04869 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04869 ], some cases, the channels on Earth and Mars have been filled by lava to make them more resistant to erosion. In the case of Eberswalde, there are no lava flows, instead, the channel floors may have been rendered resistant to erosion either by being better-cemented than the surrounding material, or composed of coarser-grained sediment (such as sand and gravel as opposed to silt), or both. 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. |
|
Eberswalde Delta in High Res
…
PIA04293
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Eberswalde Delta in High Resolution |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
). The first Mars Orbiter Camera narrow angle images of some of the landforms in the delta were acquired in 2000, during the Mars Global Surveyor primary mission, but those pictures did not show very well the unambiguous inverted channel forms. Not until the second Earth year of the orbiter's extended mission were the deltaic features recognized in Mars Orbiter Camera images obtained in March and June of 2002. Following the initial observations in 2002, the Mars Orbiter Camera team began a systematic effort to map the entire Eberswalde Crater delta. Most of this imaging required slewing the whole spacecraft in a technique called "roll only targeted observation" so that it pointed the camera toward the feature. In this way, the camera team was able to build up a mosaic of the delta much more quickly than would have been the case if the team had simply relied upon chance crossing of the delta by the orbiter's usual ground track. This technique was not employed during Mars Global Surveyor's primary mission, except in the search for Mars Polar Lander, but became a routine part of the tool kit during the extended mission. Even with the "roll only targeted observation" technique, it took more than one Earth year to build up a complete mosaic of images of the delta. In the meantime, the first data showing the deltaic landforms were archived and released to the public and scientific community, long before the Mars Orbiter Camera team's analysis and mosaic were complete. Some scientists began independent analyses of the landform at that time. The initial analysis and announcement of the feature was finally published in November 2003. The Eberswalde delta provides the first clear, "smoking gun" evidence that some valleys on Mars experienced persistent flow of a liquid with the physical properties of water over an extended period of time, as do rivers on Earth. In addition, because the delta today is lithified -- that is, hardened to form rock -- it provided the first unambiguous evidence that some martian sedimentary rocks were deposited in a liquid (presumably, water) environment. The presence of meandering channels, a cut-off meander, and crisscrossing channels at different elevations (one above the other), provided the clear geologic evidence for these interpretations. After the sediments were deposited to form the delta, the material was further buried by other materials -- probably sediments -- that are no longer present. The entire package of buried material became cemented and hardened to form rock. Later, erosive processes such as wind stripped away the overlying rock, re-exposing the delta. Now preserved essentially as a fossil, the former floors of channels in the delta became inverted, to form ridges, by erosion. Channels can be inverted by erosion on both Earth and Mars. Usually this happens when the channel floor, or the material filling the channel, is harder to erode than the surrounding material into which the channel was cut. In, Scientifically, perhaps the most important result from use of the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor during that spacecraft's extended mission has been the discovery and documentation of a fossil delta. The feature is located in a crater northeast of Holden Crater, near 24.0 degrees south latitude, 33.7 degrees west longitude. Since the announcement of the discovery of the delta in November 2003, the International Astronomical Union has provided a provisional name (pending final approval) for the crater in which the landforms occur. The crater has been named Eberswalde, for a town in Germany. This image offers a higher-resolution view of a portion of the fossil delta than any seen earlier. North is up. At the bottom of the frame, the image includes the north end of a looping, inverted, meandering channel. The image covers an area of about 3 by 3 kilometers (1.9 x 1.9 miles). It was produced using a technique called "compensated pitch and roll targeted observation," in which the rotation rate of the spacecraft is adjusted to match the ground speed under the camera. At full resolution, this map-projected image is at 50 centimeters (20 inches) per pixel. Additional images from Mars Orbiter Camera provide some context (figure 4) and show a nearby portion of the fossil delta's inverted channels (figure 5) at a spatial scale of 1.5 meters (about 5 feet) per pixel. The relative positions of these three images are indicated in a mosaic image of the entire delta (figure 1), for which the unmarked version was released in November 2003 (PIA04869 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04869 ], some cases, the channels on Earth and Mars have been filled by lava to make them more resistant to erosion. In the case of Eberswalde, there are no lava flows, instead, the channel floors may have been rendered resistant to erosion either by being better-cemented than the surrounding material, or composed of coarser-grained sediment (such as sand and gravel as opposed to silt), or both. 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. |
|
Eberswalde Delta in High Res
…
PIA04293
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Eberswalde Delta in High Resolution |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
). The first Mars Orbiter Camera narrow angle images of some of the landforms in the delta were acquired in 2000, during the Mars Global Surveyor primary mission, but those pictures did not show very well the unambiguous inverted channel forms. Not until the second Earth year of the orbiter's extended mission were the deltaic features recognized in Mars Orbiter Camera images obtained in March and June of 2002. Following the initial observations in 2002, the Mars Orbiter Camera team began a systematic effort to map the entire Eberswalde Crater delta. Most of this imaging required slewing the whole spacecraft in a technique called "roll only targeted observation" so that it pointed the camera toward the feature. In this way, the camera team was able to build up a mosaic of the delta much more quickly than would have been the case if the team had simply relied upon chance crossing of the delta by the orbiter's usual ground track. This technique was not employed during Mars Global Surveyor's primary mission, except in the search for Mars Polar Lander, but became a routine part of the tool kit during the extended mission. Even with the "roll only targeted observation" technique, it took more than one Earth year to build up a complete mosaic of images of the delta. In the meantime, the first data showing the deltaic landforms were archived and released to the public and scientific community, long before the Mars Orbiter Camera team's analysis and mosaic were complete. Some scientists began independent analyses of the landform at that time. The initial analysis and announcement of the feature was finally published in November 2003. The Eberswalde delta provides the first clear, "smoking gun" evidence that some valleys on Mars experienced persistent flow of a liquid with the physical properties of water over an extended period of time, as do rivers on Earth. In addition, because the delta today is lithified -- that is, hardened to form rock -- it provided the first unambiguous evidence that some martian sedimentary rocks were deposited in a liquid (presumably, water) environment. The presence of meandering channels, a cut-off meander, and crisscrossing channels at different elevations (one above the other), provided the clear geologic evidence for these interpretations. After the sediments were deposited to form the delta, the material was further buried by other materials -- probably sediments -- that are no longer present. The entire package of buried material became cemented and hardened to form rock. Later, erosive processes such as wind stripped away the overlying rock, re-exposing the delta. Now preserved essentially as a fossil, the former floors of channels in the delta became inverted, to form ridges, by erosion. Channels can be inverted by erosion on both Earth and Mars. Usually this happens when the channel floor, or the material filling the channel, is harder to erode than the surrounding material into which the channel was cut. In, Scientifically, perhaps the most important result from use of the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor during that spacecraft's extended mission has been the discovery and documentation of a fossil delta. The feature is located in a crater northeast of Holden Crater, near 24.0 degrees south latitude, 33.7 degrees west longitude. Since the announcement of the discovery of the delta in November 2003, the International Astronomical Union has provided a provisional name (pending final approval) for the crater in which the landforms occur. The crater has been named Eberswalde, for a town in Germany. This image offers a higher-resolution view of a portion of the fossil delta than any seen earlier. North is up. At the bottom of the frame, the image includes the north end of a looping, inverted, meandering channel. The image covers an area of about 3 by 3 kilometers (1.9 x 1.9 miles). It was produced using a technique called "compensated pitch and roll targeted observation," in which the rotation rate of the spacecraft is adjusted to match the ground speed under the camera. At full resolution, this map-projected image is at 50 centimeters (20 inches) per pixel. Additional images from Mars Orbiter Camera provide some context (figure 4) and show a nearby portion of the fossil delta's inverted channels (figure 5) at a spatial scale of 1.5 meters (about 5 feet) per pixel. The relative positions of these three images are indicated in a mosaic image of the entire delta (figure 1), for which the unmarked version was released in November 2003 (PIA04869 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04869 ], some cases, the channels on Earth and Mars have been filled by lava to make them more resistant to erosion. In the case of Eberswalde, there are no lava flows, instead, the channel floors may have been rendered resistant to erosion either by being better-cemented than the surrounding material, or composed of coarser-grained sediment (such as sand and gravel as opposed to silt), or both. 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. |
|
Eberswalde Delta in High Res
…
PIA04293
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Eberswalde Delta in High Resolution |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
). The first Mars Orbiter Camera narrow angle images of some of the landforms in the delta were acquired in 2000, during the Mars Global Surveyor primary mission, but those pictures did not show very well the unambiguous inverted channel forms. Not until the second Earth year of the orbiter's extended mission were the deltaic features recognized in Mars Orbiter Camera images obtained in March and June of 2002. Following the initial observations in 2002, the Mars Orbiter Camera team began a systematic effort to map the entire Eberswalde Crater delta. Most of this imaging required slewing the whole spacecraft in a technique called "roll only targeted observation" so that it pointed the camera toward the feature. In this way, the camera team was able to build up a mosaic of the delta much more quickly than would have been the case if the team had simply relied upon chance crossing of the delta by the orbiter's usual ground track. This technique was not employed during Mars Global Surveyor's primary mission, except in the search for Mars Polar Lander, but became a routine part of the tool kit during the extended mission. Even with the "roll only targeted observation" technique, it took more than one Earth year to build up a complete mosaic of images of the delta. In the meantime, the first data showing the deltaic landforms were archived and released to the public and scientific community, long before the Mars Orbiter Camera team's analysis and mosaic were complete. Some scientists began independent analyses of the landform at that time. The initial analysis and announcement of the feature was finally published in November 2003. The Eberswalde delta provides the first clear, "smoking gun" evidence that some valleys on Mars experienced persistent flow of a liquid with the physical properties of water over an extended period of time, as do rivers on Earth. In addition, because the delta today is lithified -- that is, hardened to form rock -- it provided the first unambiguous evidence that some martian sedimentary rocks were deposited in a liquid (presumably, water) environment. The presence of meandering channels, a cut-off meander, and crisscrossing channels at different elevations (one above the other), provided the clear geologic evidence for these interpretations. After the sediments were deposited to form the delta, the material was further buried by other materials -- probably sediments -- that are no longer present. The entire package of buried material became cemented and hardened to form rock. Later, erosive processes such as wind stripped away the overlying rock, re-exposing the delta. Now preserved essentially as a fossil, the former floors of channels in the delta became inverted, to form ridges, by erosion. Channels can be inverted by erosion on both Earth and Mars. Usually this happens when the channel floor, or the material filling the channel, is harder to erode than the surrounding material into which the channel was cut. In, Scientifically, perhaps the most important result from use of the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor during that spacecraft's extended mission has been the discovery and documentation of a fossil delta. The feature is located in a crater northeast of Holden Crater, near 24.0 degrees south latitude, 33.7 degrees west longitude. Since the announcement of the discovery of the delta in November 2003, the International Astronomical Union has provided a provisional name (pending final approval) for the crater in which the landforms occur. The crater has been named Eberswalde, for a town in Germany. This image offers a higher-resolution view of a portion of the fossil delta than any seen earlier. North is up. At the bottom of the frame, the image includes the north end of a looping, inverted, meandering channel. The image covers an area of about 3 by 3 kilometers (1.9 x 1.9 miles). It was produced using a technique called "compensated pitch and roll targeted observation," in which the rotation rate of the spacecraft is adjusted to match the ground speed under the camera. At full resolution, this map-projected image is at 50 centimeters (20 inches) per pixel. Additional images from Mars Orbiter Camera provide some context (figure 4) and show a nearby portion of the fossil delta's inverted channels (figure 5) at a spatial scale of 1.5 meters (about 5 feet) per pixel. The relative positions of these three images are indicated in a mosaic image of the entire delta (figure 1), for which the unmarked version was released in November 2003 (PIA04869 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04869 ], some cases, the channels on Earth and Mars have been filled by lava to make them more resistant to erosion. In the case of Eberswalde, there are no lava flows, instead, the channel floors may have been rendered resistant to erosion either by being better-cemented than the surrounding material, or composed of coarser-grained sediment (such as sand and gravel as opposed to silt), or both. 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. |
|
Eberswalde Delta in High Res
…
PIA04293
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Eberswalde Delta in High Resolution |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
). The first Mars Orbiter Camera narrow angle images of some of the landforms in the delta were acquired in 2000, during the Mars Global Surveyor primary mission, but those pictures did not show very well the unambiguous inverted channel forms. Not until the second Earth year of the orbiter's extended mission were the deltaic features recognized in Mars Orbiter Camera images obtained in March and June of 2002. Following the initial observations in 2002, the Mars Orbiter Camera team began a systematic effort to map the entire Eberswalde Crater delta. Most of this imaging required slewing the whole spacecraft in a technique called "roll only targeted observation" so that it pointed the camera toward the feature. In this way, the camera team was able to build up a mosaic of the delta much more quickly than would have been the case if the team had simply relied upon chance crossing of the delta by the orbiter's usual ground track. This technique was not employed during Mars Global Surveyor's primary mission, except in the search for Mars Polar Lander, but became a routine part of the tool kit during the extended mission. Even with the "roll only targeted observation" technique, it took more than one Earth year to build up a complete mosaic of images of the delta. In the meantime, the first data showing the deltaic landforms were archived and released to the public and scientific community, long before the Mars Orbiter Camera team's analysis and mosaic were complete. Some scientists began independent analyses of the landform at that time. The initial analysis and announcement of the feature was finally published in November 2003. The Eberswalde delta provides the first clear, "smoking gun" evidence that some valleys on Mars experienced persistent flow of a liquid with the physical properties of water over an extended period of time, as do rivers on Earth. In addition, because the delta today is lithified -- that is, hardened to form rock -- it provided the first unambiguous evidence that some martian sedimentary rocks were deposited in a liquid (presumably, water) environment. The presence of meandering channels, a cut-off meander, and crisscrossing channels at different elevations (one above the other), provided the clear geologic evidence for these interpretations. After the sediments were deposited to form the delta, the material was further buried by other materials -- probably sediments -- that are no longer present. The entire package of buried material became cemented and hardened to form rock. Later, erosive processes such as wind stripped away the overlying rock, re-exposing the delta. Now preserved essentially as a fossil, the former floors of channels in the delta became inverted, to form ridges, by erosion. Channels can be inverted by erosion on both Earth and Mars. Usually this happens when the channel floor, or the material filling the channel, is harder to erode than the surrounding material into which the channel was cut. In, Scientifically, perhaps the most important result from use of the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor during that spacecraft's extended mission has been the discovery and documentation of a fossil delta. The feature is located in a crater northeast of Holden Crater, near 24.0 degrees south latitude, 33.7 degrees west longitude. Since the announcement of the discovery of the delta in November 2003, the International Astronomical Union has provided a provisional name (pending final approval) for the crater in which the landforms occur. The crater has been named Eberswalde, for a town in Germany. This image offers a higher-resolution view of a portion of the fossil delta than any seen earlier. North is up. At the bottom of the frame, the image includes the north end of a looping, inverted, meandering channel. The image covers an area of about 3 by 3 kilometers (1.9 x 1.9 miles). It was produced using a technique called "compensated pitch and roll targeted observation," in which the rotation rate of the spacecraft is adjusted to match the ground speed under the camera. At full resolution, this map-projected image is at 50 centimeters (20 inches) per pixel. Additional images from Mars Orbiter Camera provide some context (figure 4) and show a nearby portion of the fossil delta's inverted channels (figure 5) at a spatial scale of 1.5 meters (about 5 feet) per pixel. The relative positions of these three images are indicated in a mosaic image of the entire delta (figure 1), for which the unmarked version was released in November 2003 (PIA04869 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04869 ], some cases, the channels on Earth and Mars have been filled by lava to make them more resistant to erosion. In the case of Eberswalde, there are no lava flows, instead, the channel floors may have been rendered resistant to erosion either by being better-cemented than the surrounding material, or composed of coarser-grained sediment (such as sand and gravel as opposed to silt), or both. 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. |
|
Meridiani Planum
PIA05355
Sol (our sun)
Thermal Emission Imaging Sys
…
| Title |
Meridiani Planum |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Released 19 January 2004 Long before the MER landers were named or launched, the two orbiters at Mars were asked to examine landing sites. Both the Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft have been collecting landing site data for the past two years. The MGS and ODY data were used as part of the decision making process in the final selection of the two landing sites. The types of data collected by the two orbiters included not only images of the surface but also thermal data about the surface composition, atmospheric data about the climate at each location, and the tracking of major dust storms in the region prior to landing. The presence of, and data collected by, the MGS and ODY orbiters have proven invaluable in MER mission planning. This image, taken on 8 November 2003 (just 10 weeks ago), shows a section of Meridiani Planum. On January 24, the MER rover Opportunity should land in Meridiani Planum to research the hematite found by the Thermal Emission Spectrometer [ http://tes.asu.edu/ ] onboard the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter. Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -4, Longitude 358.2 East (1.8 West). 19 meter/pixel resolution. Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. |
|
Meridiani Planum
PIA05355
Sol (our sun)
Thermal Emission Imaging Sys
…
| Title |
Meridiani Planum |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Released 19 January 2004 Long before the MER landers were named or launched, the two orbiters at Mars were asked to examine landing sites. Both the Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft have been collecting landing site data for the past two years. The MGS and ODY data were used as part of the decision making process in the final selection of the two landing sites. The types of data collected by the two orbiters included not only images of the surface but also thermal data about the surface composition, atmospheric data about the climate at each location, and the tracking of major dust storms in the region prior to landing. The presence of, and data collected by, the MGS and ODY orbiters have proven invaluable in MER mission planning. This image, taken on 8 November 2003 (just 10 weeks ago), shows a section of Meridiani Planum. On January 24, the MER rover Opportunity should land in Meridiani Planum to research the hematite found by the Thermal Emission Spectrometer [ http://tes.asu.edu/ ] onboard the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter. Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -4, Longitude 358.2 East (1.8 West). 19 meter/pixel resolution. Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. |
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Rolling Stones Make New Boul
…
PIA04291
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Rolling Stones Make New Boulder Tracks |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
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 (figure 2). 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. |
|
Rolling Stones Make New Boul
…
PIA04291
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Rolling Stones Make New Boulder Tracks |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
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 (figure 2). 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. |
|
Rolling Stones Make New Boul
…
PIA04291
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Rolling Stones Make New Boulder Tracks |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
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 (figure 2). 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. |
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