Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
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This view shows color variations in bright layered deposits on a plateau near Juventae Chasma in the Valles Marineris region of Mars. A brown mantle covers portions of the bright deposits. The view covers an area about 1.2 kilometers (three-fourths of a mile) across. The image comes from an observation made by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on May 2, 2007. Researchers have found that these bright layered deposits contain opaline silica and iron sulfates, consistent with low-temperature, acidic aqueous alteration of basaltic materials. They conclude that aqueous activity affected this plateau after formation of the nearby canyons. Although the source of water and sediment remains uncertain, the strong correlation between fluvial landforms and bright layered deposits in this region argues for sustained precipitation, surface runoff, and fluvial deposition occurring during Mars' Hesperian Era on the plateaus adjacent to Valles Marineris and along portions of canyon walls. This image is one product from HiRISE observation PSP_003579_1755, centered at 4.7 degrees south latitude, 296.4 degrees east longitude. Other image products from this observation are available at http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_003579_1755. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
 
 
Bright Layered Deposits with Clues of Acidic Water
The bright material conspicuous in this image was excavated from below the surface and deposited nearby by a 2008 impact that dug a crater about 8 meters (26 feet) in diameter. The extent of the bright patch was large enough for the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, an instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, to obtain information confirming the material to be water ice. This image, covering an area 50 meters (164 feet) across, was taken on Nov. 1, 2008, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on the same orbiter. The time frame for the crater-forming impact to have occurred was bracketed by before-and-after images (not shown) taken by the Thermal Emission Imaging System camera aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter on Jan. 26, 2008, and by the Context Camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Sept. 18, 2008. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
 
 
Material Excavated by a Fresh Impact and Identified as Water Ice
This 12-meter-wide (39-foot-wide) crater in mid-latitude northern Mars was created by an impact that occurred between July 3, 2004, and June 28, 2008, as bracketed by before-and-after images not shown here. The images shown here were taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Nov. 19, 2008, (left) and on Jan. 8, 2009. Each image is 35 meters (115 feet) across. The impact that dug the crater excavated water ice from below the surface. It is the bright material visible in this pair of images. This crater is at 46.16 degrees north latitude, 188.51 degrees east longitude. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
 
 
Twelve-Meter-Wide Crater Excavates Ice on Mars
This 6-meter-wide (20-foot-wide) crater in mid-latitude northern Mars was created by an impact that occurred between Jan. 22, 2008, and Sept. 15, 2008, as bracketed by before-and-after images not shown here. The images shown here were taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Oct. 29, 2008, (left) and on Jan. 4, 2009. Each image is 35 meters (115 feet) across. The crater's depth is estimated at 1.76 meters (5.8 feet). The impact that dug the crater excavated water ice from beneath the surface. It is the bright material visible in this pair of images. A change in appearance from the earlier image to the later one resulted from some of the ice sublimating away during the northern-hemisphere summer, leaving behind dust that had been intermixed with the ice. The thickening layer of dust on top obscured some of the remaining ice. This crater is at 45.05 degrees north latitude, 164.71 degrees east longitude. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
 
 
Crater Formed in 2008 Reveals Subsurface Ice
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took these images of a fresh, 6-meter-wide (20-foot-wide) crater on Mars on Oct. 18, 2008, (left) and on Jan. 14, 2009. Each image is 35 meters (115 feet) across. This crater's depth is estimated to be 1.33 meters (4.4 feet). Images taken by the Thermal Emission Imaging System camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter and by the Context Camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show that the impact that excavated this crater occurred sometime between Dec. 22, 2008 and July 5, 2008. The impact exposed water ice from below the surface. It is the bright material visible in this pair of images. The change in appearance from the earlier image to the later one resulted from some of the ice sublimating away during the Martian northern-hemisphere summer, leaving behind dust that had been intermixed with the ice. The thickening layer of dust on top obscured the remaining ice. This crater is at 43.28 degrees north latitude, 164.22 degrees east longitude. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
 
 
Underground Ice on Mars Exposed by Impact Cratering
This series of images spanning a period of 15 weeks shows a pair of fresh, middle-latitude craters on Mars in which some bright, bluish material apparent in the earliest images disappears by the later ones. Each panel is 75 meters (246 feet) across. The two craters are each about 4 meters (13 feet) in diameter and half a meter (1.5 feet) deep. The bright material is water ice that was uncovered by the meteorite impact that excavated these small craters less than 15 weeks before the initial image of this series. Sublimation of the ice during the Martian summer leaves behind a dust layer that gradually thickens to the point where it obscures the ice. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took these images of this site at 46.33 degrees north latitude, 176.90 degrees east longitude. The HiRISE camera's targeting of the site was prompted by two earlier images from the Context Camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which showed that the impact responsible for these craters had not yet occurred by June 4, 2008, but had occurred by Aug. 10, 2008. The dates when these six HiRISE images were taken were (left to right, top row; then left to right, bottom row): Sept. 12, 2008; Sept. 28, 2008; Oct. 9, 2008; Oct. 14, 2008; Nov. 22, 2008; and Dec. 25, 2008. The span of time corresponded to a period from mid to late summer in Mars' northern hemisphere. The images are subframes of the observations made on those dates. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
 
 
Ice in Pair of Fresh Craters on Mars Fades with Time
Mars' seasonal cap of carbon dioxide ice has eroded many beautiful terrains as it sublimates (goes directly from ice to vapor) every spring. In the region where the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took this image, we see troughs that form a starburst pattern. In other areas these radial troughs have been refered to as spiders, simply because of their shape. In this region the pattern looks more dendritic as channels branch out numerous times as they get further from the center. The troughs are believed to be formed by gas flowing beneath the seasonal ice to openings where the gas escapes, carrying along dust from the surface below. The dust falls to the surface of the ice in fan-shaped deposits. This image, covering an area about 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) across, is a portion of the HiRISE observation catalogued as ESP_011842_0980, taken on Feb. 4, 2009. The observation is centered at 81.8° south latitude, 76.2° east longitude. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 4:56 PM and the scene is illuminated from the west with a solar incidence angle of 78°, thus the sun was about 12° above the horizon. At a solar longitude of 203.6°, the season on Mars is northern autumn. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
 
 
Starburst Spider
HiRISE captured these enhanced-color images of Deimos, the smaller of the two moons of Mars, on 21 February 2009. Deimos has a smooth surface due to a blanket of fragmental rock or regolith, except for the most recent impact craters. It is a dark, reddish object, very similar to Phobos, shown here in enhanced HiRISE colors (near-infrared, red, and blue-green). With an image scale of about 20 meters/pixel, features 60 m or larger can be discerned. The images were acquired 5 hrs 35 minutes apart, so the sun was to the upper left in the first (left) image and to the right in the second image. Although the viewing geometry is similar in the two images, surface features appear very different due to the changes in illumination. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
 
 
Deimos, moon of Mars
HiRISE captured these enhanced-color images of Deimos, the smaller of the two moons of Mars, on 21 February 2009. Deimos has a smooth surface due to a blanket of fragmental rock or regolith, except for the most recent impact craters. It is a dark, reddish object, very similar to Phobos, shown here in enhanced HiRISE colors (near-infrared, red, and blue-green). Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
 
 
Deimos, moon of Mars
This trio of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Context Camera (CTX) images shows an area in the Icaria Planum region (near 39.5°S, 103.2°W) before, during, and after a local dust-raising event occurred in October 2008. In the middle frame, taken only five days after the left image, dust blowing from the west to the east (from the left to the right of the frame) obscures much of the image. The right image was taken after the dust-raising event subsided and shows that no apparent changes in appearance of the surface (such as formation of wind streaks) resulted from the event. The images cover an area approximately 30 km (18.6 mi) wide and 60 km (37.3 mi) long. Illumination is from the upper left and north is slightly to the right of the top of the image. In addition to the dust storm, there are other features of note in this region. A valley enters the larger crater near the center of these CTX images from the right; sediment transported through the valley formed a fan-shaped feature at its mouth. These images were taken during southern winter, and seasonal frost can be seen as bright areas on the northern walls of the craters. Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
 
 
Martian Weather Activity on Short Timescales
Each of these four panels shows a close-up view of a different type of geological deposit formed with the involvement of water, based on observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. All four date from the earliest period of Martian history, called the Noachian Period. The upper-left panel shows carbonates overlying clays in the Nili Fossae region of Mars. The view combines color-coded information from infrared spectral observations by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) with an underlying black-and-white image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. Beneath a rough-textured capping rock unit (purple) lie banded olivine-bearing layers (yellow), which in some places have been partially or wholly altered to carbonate (green). The upper-right panel shows phyllosilicates and chlorides in the Terra Sirenum region, observed by CRISM and HiRISE. Medium-toned, finely fractured rocks containing chloride salts either underlie higher-standing, light-toned phyllosilicates or fill in low spots between them. Both sit on dark, eroded volcanic material. The lower-left panel shows the upper portion of canyon wall in Coprates Chasma, observed by HiRISE and CRISM. The chasm rim cuts across the middle of the image. The wall slopes down to the top of the image and continues outside the region shown, exposing multiple phyllosilicate-bearing layers in a section of rock 7 kilometers (4 miles) thick. Two of the layers shown here are finely fractured aluminum clays that dominate the lower half of the image, underlain by thin beds of iron-magnesium clays at the top of the image. The dark material is a remnant of an overlying layer of basaltic sand that has been partly eroded away by the wind. The lower-right panel shows phyllosilicates with vertically layered compositions in Mawrth Vallis, observed by HiRISE (presented in enhanced color) and CRISM. The brown-colored knob in the middle of the scene is a remnant of cap rock that overlies aluminum clays (blue-gray), which in turn overlie iron-magnesium clays (buff). Credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL/University of Arizona/Brown University
 
 
Four Types of Deposits From Wet Conditions on Early Mars
The color coding on this composite image of an area about 20 kilometers (12 miles) wide on Mars is based on infrared spectral information interpreted as evidence of various minerals present. Carbonate, which is indicative of a wet and non-acidic history, occurs in very small patches of exposed rock appearing green in this color representation, such as near the lower right corner. The scene is heavily eroded terrain to the west of a small canyon in the Nili Fossae region of Mars. It was one of the first areas where researchers on the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) science team detected carbonate in Mars rocks. The spectral information comes from infrared imaging by CRISM, one of six science instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. That coloring is overlaid on a grayscale image from the same orbiter's Context Camera. The uppermost capping rock unit (purple) is underlain successively by banded olivine-bearing rocks (yellow) and rocks bearing iron-magnesium smectite clay (blue). Where the olivine is a greenish hue, it has been partially altered by interaction with water. The carbonate and olivine occupy the same level in the stratigraphy, and it is thought that the carbonate formed by aqueous alteration of olivine. The channel running from upper left to lower right through the image and eroding into the layers of bedrock testifies to the past presence of water in this region. That some of the channels are closely associated with carbonate (lower right) indicates that waters interacting with the carbonate were neutral to alkaline because acidic waters would have dissolved the carbonate. Information for the color coding came from CRISM images catalogued as FRT0000B438, FRT0000A4FC, and FRT00003E12. This composite was made using 2.38-micrometer-wavelenghth data as red, 1.80 micrometer as green and 1.15 micrometer as blue. The base black-and-white image, acquired at a resolution of 5 meters (16 feet) per pixel, is catalogued as CTX P03_002176_2024_XI_22N283W_070113 by the Context Camera science team. Credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL/University of Arizona/Brown University
 
 
Context of Carbonate Rocks in Heavily Eroded Martian Terrain
The color coding on this composite image of an area about 3 kilometers (2 miles) across on Mars is based on infrared spectral information interpreted as evidence of various minerals present. Carbonate (green) and olivine-bearing rocks (yellow) occupy the same level in the stratigraphy, and it is thought that the carbonate formed by involvement of water in altering olivine-bearing rocks. The scene is eroded terrain in the Nili Fossae region of northern Mars. Beneath a rough-textured capping rock unit (purple) lie banded olivine-bearing layers (yellow), which in some places have been partially or wholly altered to carbonate (green). Beneath the olivine-and-carbonate unit are rocks with iron-magnesium smectite clays (light blue). Olivine is also found in sand dunes (near bottom right corner, for example), and it probably eroded from the nearby rocks. The image overlays the color-coded spectral information from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) onto a grayscale image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. CRISM and HiRISE are two of the six science instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The infrared spectral information comes from a CRISM image catalogued as FRT00003E12. The composite view here was made using 2.38-micrometer-wavelenghth data as red, 1.80 micrometer as green and 1.15 micrometer as blue. The base black-and-white image is catalogued as PSP_002888_2025 by the HiRISE team. Credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL/University of Arizona/Brown University
 
 
Carbonate-Olivine Relationship in Nile Fossae, Mars
Rhythmic bedding in sedimentary bedrock within Becquerel crater on Mars is suggested by the patterns in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Three dimensional analysis based on stereo pairs of images confirmed the regularity of repetition in the thickness of the beds. In the left half of this image, some of the rhythm is apparent as a series of bundles of about 10 individual layers per bundle. By corresponding to a known 10-to-one pattern in changes in the tilt of Mars' rotation axis, this pattern suggests the periodicity in the rock layers results from cyclical changes in the planet's tilt. This view covers an area about 1.15 kilometers (0.7 mile) wide. Individual layers in the scence average 3.6 meters (12 feet) thick. The view is presented in enhanced color emphasizing the differing compositions of surface material. Sand trapped in relative low points in the terrain appears blue. Sedimentary rocks appear pink. Faulting apparent in the image suggests that the deposits are hardened rock, not softer material. Tilting of the layers in different ways and the surface topography made the three-dimensional analysis necessary for determining the thickness of layers. This image is a portion of the HiRISE image catalogued as PSP_004078_2015, taken on June 10, 2007. The location of the imaged area is at 22 degrees north latitude, 352 degrees east longitude, within the Arabia Terra region. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.
 
 
Periodic Layering in Becquerel Crater
This image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows sedimentary-rock layering in which a series of layers are all approximately the same thickness. Three-dimensional analysis using stereo pairs of HiRISE images has confirmed the periodic nature of the layering. Individual layers in the area average about 10 meters (33 feet) in thickness. This image, taken on Feb. 25, 2007, is a portion of the HiRISE image catalogued as PSP_002733_1880. The location of the imaged area is at 8 degrees north latitude, 353 degrees east longitude, within the Arabia Terra region. The view covers an area about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) across, within an unnamed crater in the Arabia Terra region of Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.
 
 
Periodic Layering in Martian Sedimentary Rocks
This three-dimensional image of a trough in the Nili Fossae region of Mars shows a type of minerals called phyllosilicates (in magenta and blue hues) concentrated on the slopes of mesas and along canyon walls. The abundance of phyllosilicates shows that water played a sizable role in changing the minerals of a variety of terrains in the planet's early history. Credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL/University of Arizona/Brown University.
 
 
Water-Rich Terrain
A color-enhanced image of the delta in Jezero Crater, which once held a lake. Researchers led by CRISM team member and Brown graduate student Bethany Ehlmann report that ancient rivers ferried clay-like minerals (shown in green) into the lake, forming the delta. Clays tend to trap and preserve organic matter, making the delta a good place to look for signs of ancient life. Credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL/MSSS/Brown University.
 
 
Organic Cemetery
This is a close-up and enhanced part of image PSP_007769_9015. In the original image, detail in the black, un-illuminated portion is not apparent. However, seen in enhanced detail here, craters are clearly visible. This faint illumination is from reflected light off of Mars (
 
 
Marsshine
This image was made by combining data from HiRISE's blue/green, red, and near-infrared channels. The color data accentuate details not apparent in the black and white images. For example, materials near the rim of Stickney appear bluer than the rest of Phobos. Based on analogy with materials on our own moon, this could mean this surface is fresher, and therefore younger, than other parts of Phobos. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
 
 
Stickey rotated
This image was made by combining data from HiRISE's blue/green, red, and near-infrared channels. The color data accentuate details not apparent in the black and white images. For example, materials near the rim of Stickney appear bluer than the rest of Phobos. Based on analogy with materials on our own moon, this could mean this surface is fresher, and therefore younger, than other parts of Phobos. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
 
 
Stickney
This image was made by combining data from HiRISE's blue/green, red, and near-infrared channels. The color data accentuate details not apparent in the black and white images. For example, materials near the rim of Stickney appear bluer than the rest of Phobos. Based on analogy with materials on our own moon, this could mean this surface is fresher, and therefore younger, than other parts of Phobos. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
 
 
Phobos Imaged by HiRISE
This image was made by combining data from HiRISE's blue/green, red, and near-infrared channels. The color data accentuate details not apparent in the black and white images. For example, materials near the rim of Stickney appear bluer than the rest of Phobos. Based on analogy with materials on our own moon, this could mean this surface is fresher, and therefore younger, than other parts of Phobos. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
 
 
Phobos Imaged by HiRISE
This observation provides a closer look at 5,800 km, views the surface at slightly more detail (5.8 m/pixel with a object diameter of about 4,000 pixels). Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
 
 
Phobos Imaged by HiRISE
This Observation acquired at a distance of 6,800 kilometers from Phobos, provides surface detail at 6.8 m/pixel scale and a object diameter of about 3,200 pixels. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
 
 
Phobos Imaged by HiRISE
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Context Camera (CTX) has been acquiring 6 meters (19.7 feet) per pixel images of Mars since October 2006. To date, more than 20% of Mars has been covered at this scale, and at least 1% more is added each month. This picture of a crater resembling a
 
 
Have a Happy Mars
These two images taken by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) show Mars' two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, as seen from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's low orbit around Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL
 
 
CRISM Views Phobos and Deimos
This image from HiRISE image PSP_003583_1425 shows gully channels in a crater in the southern highlands of Mars, taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The gullies emanating from the rocky cliffs near the crater's rim (upper left) show meandering and braided patterns typical of water-carved channels. North is approximately up and illumination is from the left; scale, 26 centimeters per pixel. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
 
 
Gullies with Characteristics of Water-Carved Channels
This image of the Nili Fossae region was taken by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter at 06:43 UTC on June 21, 2007 near 21.15° north latitude, 74.24° east longitude. CRISM's image was taken in 544 colors covering 0.36-3.92 micrometers, and shows features as small as 20 meters (66 feet) across. The region covered is just over 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) wide at its narrowest point, and is one of several dozen that CRISM has taken to map the minerals present at candidate landing sites for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, which will launch in 2010. Credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL
 
 
Nili Fossae in Natural Color and Across the Spectrum
This view, a small portion of a HiRISE image taken on Aug. 9, 2007, shows a dark pit about 150 meters (492 feet) in diameter set in a lava flow. The image was taken with the camera pointing slightly westward, instead of straight down. It catches the eastern wall of the pit lit by afternoon sunlight. The image was taken at 14:34 local Mars time. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
 
 
View of Dark Pit on Mars
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter SHARAD (SHAllow RADar) view of rock layering on Mars Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
 
 
Radar View of Rock Layering on Mars
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