@beautifulmars / beautifulmars.tumblr.com
The lower portion of this central mound in Kaporo Crater contains an additional portion of the stratigraphic record exhibiting cyclic characteristics visible in related Context Camera imagery. The addition of this image will enable correlation with stratigraphy in an earlier HiRISE picture to build a more complete stratigraphic inventory.
ID: ESP_073677_1800 date: 15 April 2022 altitude: 267 km
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
In a 2013 image, we saw abundant slope lineae, and it is early in the season for them to appear at this latitude. When are these active? Are they leftovers from last year? High resolution data will allow for the refinement of the previous observation to distinguish more, including evaporitic deposits if present.
ID: ESP_073679_1440 date: 15 April 2022 altitude: 256 km
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
This crater contains exposures in the rim that can corroborate prevailing hypotheses for Oxia Planum’s geologic history ahead of future landing for the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover. This observation is intended to provide context for a CaSSIS instrument image suggestion.
ID: ESP_073652_1980 date: 13 April 2022 altitude: 281 km
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Another HiWish suggestion: “Some of the features nearby look like channels possibly carved by water. There are canyons or gullies in the walls of the fracture, which also might have been recently carved by water. Since there are other fractures like this in the region and elsewhere on Mars, we also want to understand how it formed.“
ID: ESP_073634_1895 date: 11 April 2022 altitude: 271 km
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
An image request from our public targeting tool HiWish: “A HiRISE image is required to study tectonic deformation of Ares Vallis. A HiRISE digital terrain model can show the angle of fault plains. It is important to understand the degree of deformation to determine elevation changes across the region.”
ID: ESP_073639_1950 date: 12 April 2022 altitude: 279 km
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
This observation targets an approximately 7.5-kilometer rimless crater located within a large bedrock plain. This crater is unusual because nearby craters in roughly the same degradation state still possess raised rims. This crater may thus represent a volcanic vent that is known as a “maar.” A maar is a broad, low-relief volcanic crater caused by an explosion that occurs when groundwater comes into contact with hot lava or magma. The gullies in this crater could also reveal the internal stratigraphy.
ID: ESP_073659_1445 date: 13 April 2022 altitude: 251 km
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
This image shows numerous dark streaks along a steep slope in the Acheron Fossae region of Mars.
This region is covered in thick layers of dust. On steep slopes, this dust occasionally becomes unstable and flows downhill, like small avalanches. The dark streaks are the scars left behind from these dust avalanches. The brighter dust is removed, revealing the darker rocks underneath.
The dust avalanches in this image are generally moving from the higher ground on the right side of the image toward the lower ground to the left.
ID: ESP_078535_2175 date: 28 April 2023 altitude: 291 km
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
This image is of a small section of the Cerberus Fossae, which is a series of troughs and pits in the eastern equatorial region of Mars.
There are two prominent types of craters (semi-circular depressions) in this observation. The first are pits in the upper half of the image, which formed through collapse of the surface into underground caverns that are part of the Cerberus Fossae. The second are impact craters in the lower section that formed through the collision of meteoroids into the planet’s surface.
Interestingly, these two types of craters show different patterns of wind streaks, which are caused by the wind flowing through and around landforms and then removing dust and sand in some places and depositing these sediments in other places. The removal and deposition of these materials result in different surface colors because the dust, sand and bedrock have different optical properties.
ID: ESP_077931_1885 date: 12 March 2023 altitude: 277 km
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
This image shows wrinkled terrain (sometimes dubbed by scientists “brain terrain”) in association with other features including mounds and circular patterns.
Scientists are still trying to understand how these terrains form on Mars, but it is likely linked to seasonal processes involving near-subsurface ice.
Also of interest is whether the associated circular features are formed by the same ice-related processes, or if they are preexisting features that have been affected by the processes causing the surface wrinkling. Studying this image in detail may shed some light on the geologic history of this complex terrain.
ID: ESP_077844_2170 date: 5 March 2023 altitude: 295 km
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
In this image, we can see a dust devil traveling across the plains of Syria Planum. The dust devil is casting a shadow, which can be used to estimate its height. This image is part of ongoing monitoring activities by HiRISE of seasonal activities on Mars.
Over the years, HiRISE has observed many dust devils. Just like on Earth, dust devils develop when the Sun heats up the ground such that it warms the air directly above it. When air heats up its density decreases causing it to rise up while colder air sinks down driving local convection.
If the region is windy, the wind my end up rotating the “convection cells” caused by the vertical motion of air leading to development of a dust devil. Since the main requirements for development of such features are the presence of dust and a warm ground, we focus our monitoring of dust devils in regions on Mars that are known to be dusty (like Syria Planum), and during the late spring and summer time, when we expect the ground to be warm.
ID: ESP_077862_1650 date: 7 March 2023 altitude: 253 km
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Also visible in a Context Camera image, the objective of this observation is to examine light and dark layers along the wall of a depression. A dorsum is a ridge, sometimes called a wrinkle ridge and Hegemone is one of the Graces (according to the ancient Athenians) who were daughters of Zeus and whose name means “leader”.
ID: ESP_073587_1250 date: 8 April 2022 altitude: 253 km
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
We’ve seen blocks of carbon dioxide ice in these gullies several times in previous images, which are likely carving out the linear gullies. This observation is part of a potential series to try to determine: 1) how long individual blocks last; 2) whether they stop and restart, or only move once. Russell Crater is located in Noachis Terra, a southern landmass to the west of the Hellas impact basin.
ID: ESP_073585_1255 date: 8 April 2022 altitude: 251 km
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
This stunning image shows contact between a blocky deposit and underlying material in Candor Chasma, part of the Valles Marineris canyon system. With a high resolution image of this deposit, we can try to determine the mineralogy of blocks and the underlying geological unit. There is evidence of wind and water erosion, as well as significant gravity-driven landslides in Candor.
ID: ESP_073588_1735 date: 8 April 2022 altitude: 259 km
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
This re-image shows a relatively youthful crater with some very large ejected boulders, big enough to see in Context Camera images. The rays are dark-toned: is this a textural feature or a tonal property of the ejected rock? There is plenty to look at and consider, especially regarding target properties and effects of the impact event on the local terrain, including light-toned layered rock of Meridiani Planum.
ID: ESP_073572_1785 date: 7 April 2022 altitude: 268 km
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
An image from the CaSSIS instrument on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (ESA) reveals additional color units exposed in this section of the wall of the valley, which includes some extensive sections of what may be low-calcium pyroxene-bearing rocks. Our HiRISE image can help to resolve textures (breccias) to test multiple hypotheses concerning the formation of the extensive clay-bearing unit in high resolution
ID: ESP_073534_1505 date: 4 April 2022 altitude: 255 km
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
This image is part of a longterm seasonal monitoring site with lots of long bright and dark fans. These are formed as a result of sublimation, when subsurface ice is transformed by sunlight into a gaseous state and exposes the underneath darker material. This is subsequently blown about by the wind and the fans will fade over time.
ID: ESP_073543_0925 date: 4 April 2022 altitude: 247 km
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
A CRISM observation over this unit shows several absorption bands indicative of the mineral serpentine. These probable serpentine-bearing units appear as bright-toned in HiRISE images. This observation will allow us to see the structure in high resolution for better study. The most obvious physical properties of serpentine are its green color and patterned appearance.
ID: ESP_073513_1450 date: 2 April 2022 altitude: 254 km
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
The objective of this observation is to determine the nature of what looks like layers. The layers seem to be associated with mantle material moving off knobs. It may be that the mantle slides off the knobs and gets twisted. This image shows a simple view of what is going on.
ID: ESP_023104_2125 date: 1 July 2011 altitude: 293 km
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
This location was a candidate landing site for the ExoMars mission. It’s a dune field that has never been imaged before by HiRISE, and we can use it as part of a monitoring series to spot ripples on the dunes and changes over time.
ID: ESP_073467_2010 date: 29 March 2022 altitude: 283 km
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
With this observation, we want to investigate the timing relationship between the wrinkle ridges and the quasi-circular mesas we see here. The floor of this 450-kilometer diameter crater named after Dutch astronomer Christian Huygens (1629-1695) has an unusual texture. Smooth-topped mesas are scattered across a more rugged surface. The mesas are testament to a former smooth layer of material that is in the process of eroding away.
ID: ESP_073135_1645 date: 4 March 2022 altitude: 258 km
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona