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images from the press release 'NASA Orbiter Reveals New Details Of Mars, Young And Old'
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16-Oct-2006
NASA Orbiter Reveals New Details Of Mars, Young And Old
Full Press Release
This region of Mars in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter receives very little sunlight in the southern Mars winter, when this was taken
Crater Edge in Terra Sirenum

This region of Mars in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter receives very little sunlight in the southern Mars winter, when this was taken. The bluish areas consist of frost. At the latitude of this image, frost is most likely composed of water because the temperature is not low enough for carbon dioxide condensation. The reddish regions are locations where frost has been removed, most likely by sublimation. The dark, unfrosted regions (for example, in the channel of the gully on the far right) represent the most recent activity in the gullies and are possibly a result of seasonal melting.

Besides acquiring monochromatic images of 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) swath width and variable length, HiRISE can also image the central 20 percent of the swath width in color. Color images can help resolve ambiguities in image interpretation and will enable researchers to place compositional data from other experiments into more specific geologic context. HiRISE can "see" color in the visible range (the red, green, and blue portions of the spectrum) and beyond (in the near infrared), thus allowing for the detection of -- among other features -- characteristic alteration minerals that require water to form.

Image TRA_000878_1410 was taken by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on Oct. 3, 2006. The complete image is centered at minus 38.9 degrees latitude, 223.7 degrees east longitude. The range to the target site was 254 kilometers (159 miles). At this distance the image scale is 51 centimeters (20 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning) so objects about 153 centimeters (60 inches) across are resolved. The image shown here has been map-projected to 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel and north is up. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 3:38 p.m. and the scene is illuminated from the west with a solar incidence angle of 79.9 degrees, thus the sun was about 10.1 degrees above the horizon. At a solar longitude of 115.5 degrees, the season on Mars is northern summer.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona
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A portion of the Mawrth Vallis region of Mars is seen in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Part of Mawrth Vallis Region

A portion of the Mawrth Vallis region of Mars is seen in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The Mawrth Vallis region holds special interest because of the presence of phyllosilicate (clay) minerals which form only if water is available, first identified in data from the OMEGA spectrometer on the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars has identified aluminum-rich and iron-rich clays, each with a unique distribution. On Earth such clays occur in (among other environments) weathered volcanic rocks and hydrothermal systems, where volcanic activity and water interact.

Besides acquiring monochromatic images of 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) swath width and variable length, HiRISE can also image the central 20 percent of the swath width in color. Color images can help resolve ambiguities in image interpretation and will enable researchers to place compositional data from other experiments into more specific geologic context. HiRISE can "see" color in the visible range (the red, green, and blue portions of the spectrum) and beyond (in the near infrared).

Image TRA_000847_2055 was taken by HiRISE on Oct. 1, 2006. The image is centered at 25.3 degrees latitude, 340.7 degrees east longitude. The range to the target site was 284 kilometers (178 miles). At this distance the image scale is 28 centimeters (11 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects about 84 centimeters (33 inches) across are resolved. The image shown here has been map-projected to 25 centimeters (10 inches) per pixel and north is up. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 3:23 p.m. and the scene is illuminated from the west with a solar incidence angle of 46.2 degrees, thus the sun was about 43.8 degrees above the horizon. At a solar longitude of 114.4 degrees, the season on Mars is northern summer.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona
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This image shows a Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) full-resolution 'targeted image' of the edge of Mars' north polar cap
Chasma Boreale in the North Polar Region

This shows a Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) full-resolution "targeted image" of the edge of Mars' north polar cap. The region in the image, Chasma Boreale, is a valley several kilometers or miles deep that cuts about 400 kilometers (about 250 miles) into the edge of the cap.

This image was acquired at 0851 UTC (4:51 a.m. EDT) on Oct. 1, 2006, near 84.6 degrees north latitude, 3.6 degrees east longitude. It covers an area about 13 kilometers (8 miles) long and, at the narrowest point, about 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) wide. At the center of the image the spatial resolution is as good as 18 meters (60 feet) per pixel. The image was taken in 544 colors covering wavelengths of 0.36 to 3.92 micrometers. Two renderings of the data are shown here, both draped over topography without vertical exaggeration, and then viewed from a perspective diagonally above the site. The top view is an approximately true-color representation. The bottom view, constructed from infrared wavelengths, shows strength of the spectral signature of ice. Brighter areas are rich in ice, and dark areas have little ice.

The polar cap has long been recognized to contain layers composed of dust and ice, and hence has been named the polar layered deposit. This sits atop an underlying "basal unit." The upper part of the basal unit is dark at visible wavelengths and steeply sloped, whereas the lower part of the basal unit is brighter, redder, and layered like the polar layered deposits. The chasma floor is cratered, and in the foreground it is covered by dunes that are outliers of a north polar sand sea that surrounds the polar cap. The polar layered deposits and the basal unit form a steeply sloping scarp about 1.1 kilometers (0.7 miles) high.

CRISM's image of this region shows a number of previously unrecognized characteristics of the polar layered deposits and the basal unit. First, the ice-rich polar layered deposits exhibit coherent banding both at visible and infrared wavelengths. This banding shows a history of differences in the abundance of dust that accumulated in polar ice, differences in ice grain size, or both. Second, both parts of the basal unit are depleted in ice, except for triangle-shaped regions on the side of the scarp. Third, the spectral properties of the brighter, layered lower basal unit resemble those of the polar layered deposits. In contrast, the upper basal unit is distinct from both of them. Finally, spectral properties of the foreground dunes closely resemble those of the darkest layers within the upper basal unit, and may be debris from it.

CRISM is one of six science instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Led by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the CRISM team includes expertise from universities, government agencies and small businesses in the United States and abroad.

CRISM's mission: Find the spectral fingerprints of aqueous and hydrothermal deposits and map the geology, composition and stratigraphy of surface features. The instrument will also watch the seasonal variations in Martian dust and ice aerosols, and water content in surface materials - leading to new understanding of the climate.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor and built the spacecraft.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL
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This enhanced-color view shows gullies in an unnamed crater in the Terra Sirenum region of Mars.
Gullies in Sirenum Terra, Mars

This enhanced-color view shows gullies in an unnamed crater in the Terra Sirenum region of Mars. It is a sub-image from a larger view imaged by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Oct. 3, 2006. This scene is about 254 meters (about 830 feet) wide. The upper and left regions of this scene are in shadow, yet color variations are still apparent. The high signal to noise ratio of the HiRISE camera allows for colors to be distinguished in shadows. This allows dark features to be identified as true albedo features versus topographical features.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona
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This view shows diverse materials and morphologies in the region south of Mawrth Vallis on Mars.
Diversity in Mawrth Region, Mars

This view shows diverse materials and morphologies in the region south of Mawrth Vallis on Mars. The color is composed of infrared, red, and blue-green color images, and has been enhanced to accentuate the color differences. The bright material may be rich in clays and date back to a time when Mars had a wetter environment. This is a sub-image of a larger view imaged by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Oct. 1, 2006. The resolution is 25 centimeters (10 inches) per pixel, and the scene is 352 meters (385 yards) wide.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona
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North Polar Layers, Mars

This view shows the basal layers of Mars' north polar layered deposits. The floor of Chasma Boreale is at the bottom of the image. This is a sub-image of a larger view imaged by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Oct. 1, 2006. The resolution is 64 centimeters (25 inches) per pixel, and the scene is 568 meters (621 yards) wide.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona
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A portion of the Mawrth Vallis region of Mars is seen in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Part of Mawrth Vallis

A portion of the Mawrth Vallis region of Mars is seen in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The Mawrth Vallis region holds special interest because of the presence of phyllosilicate (clay) minerals which form only if water is available, first identified in data from the OMEGA spectrometer on the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars has identified aluminum-rich and iron-rich clays, each with a unique distribution. On Earth such clays occur in (among other environments) weathered volcanic rocks and hydrothermal systems, where volcanic activity and water interact.

Besides acquiring monochromatic images of 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) swath width and variable length, HiRISE can also image the central 20 percent of the swath width in color. Color images can help resolve ambiguities in image interpretation and will enable researchers to place compositional data from other experiments into more specific geologic context. HiRISE can "see" color in the visible range (the red, green, and blue portions of the spectrum) and beyond (in the near infrared), thus allowing for the detection of -- among other features -- characteristic alteration minerals that require water to form.

Image TRA_000847_2055 was taken by HiRISE on Oct. 1, 2006. The image is centered at 25.3 degrees latitude, 340.7 degrees east longitude. The range to the target site was 284 kilometers (178 miles). At this distance the image scale is 28 centimeters (11 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects about 84 centimeters (33 inches) across are resolved. The image shown here has been map-projected to 25 centimeters (10 inches) per pixel and north is up. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 3:23 p.m. and the scene is illuminated from the west with a solar incidence angle of 46.2 degrees, thus the sun was about 43.8 degrees above the horizon. At a solar longitude of 114.4 degrees, the season on Mars is northern summer.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona
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Spectrometer Observations Near Mawrth Vallis

This targeted image from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) shows a region of heavily altered rock in Mars' ancient cratered highlands. The featured region is just south of Mawrth Vallis, a channel cut by floodwaters deep into the highlands.

CRISM acquired the image at 1216 UTC (8:16 a.m. EDT) on Oct. 2, 2006, near 25.4 degrees north latitude, 340.7 degrees east longitude. It covers an area about 13 kilometers (8 miles) long and, at the narrowest point, about 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) wide. At the center of the image, the spatial resolution is as good as 35 meters (115 feet) per pixel. The image was taken in 544 colors covering 0.36-3.92 micrometers.

This image includes four renderings of the data, all map-projected. At top left is an approximately true-color representation. At top right is false color showing brightness of the surface at selected infrared wavelengths. In the two bottom views, brightness of the surface at different infrared wavelengths has been compared to laboratory measurements of minerals, and regions that match different minerals have been colored. The bottom left image shows areas high in iron-rich clay, and the bottom right image shows areas high in aluminum-rich clay.

Clay minerals are important to understanding the history of water on Mars because their formation requires that rocks were exposed to liquid water for a long time. Environments where they form include soils, cold springs, and hot springs. There are many clay minerals, and which ones form depends on the composition of the rock, and the temperature, acidity, and salt content of the water. CRISM's sister instrument on the Mars Express spacecraft, OMEGA, has spectrally mapped Mars at lower spatial resolution and found several regions rich in clay minerals. The Mawrth Vallis region, in particular, was found to contain iron-rich clay. CRISM is observing these regions at several tens of times higher spatial resolution, to correlate the minerals with different rock formations and to search for new minerals not resolved by OMEGA.

CRISM has found that the iron-rich clays (lower left image) correspond with a layer of rock that is dark red in the true color view (upper left) and bright gray in the infrared (upper right). In addition, it has found previously undetected exposures of aluminum-rich clay, in a rock unit that is buff-colored in the true color view, and bluish in the infrared. Both types of rocks formed early in Mars' history, about 3.8 billion years ago. The difference in clay mineralogy reveals differences in the environment either over time or over a distance of kilometers. CRISM will be taking many more images of the Mawrth Vallis region to piece together the geologic history of this fascinating area that was once a wet oasis on Mars.

The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) is one of six science instruments on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Led by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the CRISM team includes expertise from universities, government agencies and small businesses in the United States and abroad.

CRISM's mission: Find the spectral fingerprints of aqueous and hydrothermal deposits and map the geology, composition and stratigraphy of surface features. The instrument will also watch the seasonal variations in Martian dust and ice aerosols, and water content in surface materials -- leading to new understanding of the climate.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the Califonia Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor and built the spacecraft.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL/Brown University
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Image of the Mars Polar Cap During Transition Phase Instrument Checkout
Mars Polar Cap During Transition Phase Instrument Checkout

During the last week of September and the first week or so of October 2006, scientific instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter were turned on to acquire test information during the transition phase leading up to full science operations. The mission's primary science phase will begin the first week of November 2006, following superior conjuction. (Superior conjunction is where a planet goes behind the sun as viewed from Earth.) Since it is very difficult to communicate with a spacecraft when it is close to the sun as seen from Earth, this checkout of the instruments was crucial to being ready for the primary science phase of the mission.

Throughout the transition-phase testing, the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) acquired terminator (transition between nighttime and daytime) to terminator swaths of color images on every dayside orbit, as the spacecraft moved northward in its orbit. The south polar region was deep in winter shadow, but the north polar region was illuminated the entire Martian day. During the primary mission, such swaths will be assembled into global maps that portray the state of the Martian atmosphere -- its weather -- as seen every day and at every place at about 3 p.m. local solar time. After the transition phase completed, most of the instruments were turned off, but the Mars Climate Sounder and MARCI have been left on. Their data will be recorded and played back to Earth following the communications blackout associated with conjuction.

Combined with wide-angle image mosaics taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor at 2 p.m. local solar time, the MARCI maps will be used to track motions of clouds.

This image is a composite mosaic of four polar views of Mars, taken at midnight, 6 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m. local Martian time. This is possible because during summer the sun is always shining in the polar region. It shows the mostly water-ice perennial cap (white area), sitting atop the north polar layered materials (light tan immediately adjacent to the ice), and the dark circumpolar dunes. This view shows the region poleward of about 72 degrees north latitude. The data were acquired at about 900 meters (about 3,000 feet) per pixel. Three channels are shown here, centered on wavelengths of 425 nanometers, 550 nanometers and 600 nanometers.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS
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This Image is a Map of Context Camera's North Polar Coverage During Checkout
Map of Context Camera's North Polar Coverage During Checkout

In October 2006, Northern Mars is near the middle of its summer, and the continued southern movement of the sun will have two main impacts on imaging: The illumination will get worse as eventually the entire polar region will be in darkness during winter, and northern hemispheric dust storms and polar cloudiness will obscure the surface. Because now is the best time to be imaging the north polar region until 2008, the team using the Context Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is devoting much of its imaging resources to acquiring images of the polar region. This image shows a north polar mosaic from the orbiter's Mars Color Imager inscribed with rectangles indicating the coverage acquired by Context Camera in less than two weeks of September and October, 2006. Following conjunction (when Mars is nearly behind the sun from Earth's perspective), the team will devote as much of November as the atmosphere permits to imaging the polar region. Marked in red on this map is the footprint of the Context Camera image.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS
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This is a Context Camera Image of North Polar Chasma Boreale
Context Camera Image of North Polar Chasma Boreale

Chasma Boreale is a large valley the cuts into Mars' north polar cap and layered materials. At the uppermost portion of this valley (84.9 degrees north, 356.6 degrees west), its head is marked by a kilometer-high (3,000-foot-high) escarpment that allows seeing the subsurface layering and how the layers extend to nearby sloping surfaces that also cut into the materials. The floor of Chasma Boreale is a cratered plain that has sand on it. In part the sand appears to be eroding out of the escarpment. This image by the Context Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was taken in support of observations by two of the orbiter's other instruments -- the orbiter's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars and the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment -- presented at an Oct. 16, 2006 news briefing. Further details can be found at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS
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Image of the Crater in Terra Sirenum with Gullied Walls
Crater in Terra Sirenum with Gullied Walls

The largest number of gullies on Mars occur on the walls of southern hemisphere craters. During southern winter, many of the gullied walls are in shadow. It has been known for many years from images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor that frost forms on these shadowed slopes and that differences in the amount or nature of the frost deposits highlight the gully floors and deposits. Such differences may occur because the materials are of different particle sizes or have other differing attributes that affect their thermophysical properties. To investigate this phenomena, the Context Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this image of a crater at 39.3 degrees south, 136.5 degrees west, where gullies were known to display frost during winter. To see the gullies, download the image and view it in an image processing program, as they are nearly invisible in the normal contrast image. The team using Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera elected to "ride along" with the Context Camera observation, and that camera's spectacular color view of the frosted gullies can be seen at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS
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Image of the Layered Rocks Near Mawrth Vallis
Layered Rocks Near Mawrth Vallis

Mawrth Vallis is one of the oldest valleys on Mars. It was formed in and subsequently covered by layered rocks, from beneath which it is now being exhumed. The rocks surrounding the valley have been observed by the Omega spectrometer aboard the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft, which found them to include minerals with water bound within their structure. Thus, the Mawrth Vallis region is of keen interest to the team using the mineral-mapping Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The CRISM team requested this image by the orbiter's Context Camera in support of a CRISM observation during orbiter's transition phase testing of instruments. The image is centered near 25.6 degrees north, 19.4 degrees west. This area was discussed during an Oct. 16, 2006, news briefing, and related imagery from CRISM and the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera can be found at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS
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