Once in a Blue Dune

There's no conspiracy here, ATS, just a really cool image from Mars. This is a blue dune in the Lyot Crater region of Mars which has a very interesting shape and look to it.



I can see different images in the picture. What do you see?

Sand dunes often accumulate in the floors of craters. In this region of Lyot Crater, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows a field of classic barchan dunes on Jan. 24, 2018. Just to the south of the group of barchan dunes is one large dune with a more complex structure. This particular dune, appearing like turquoise blue in enhanced color, is made of finer material and/or has a different composition than the surrounding. The map is projected above at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 34.7 centimeters (13.7 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning); objects on the order of 104 centimeters (40.9 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.

A blue dune.....? The mere thought of something like this being possible on Mars intrigues me. Life never ceases to amaze. What says ATS?

www.nasa.gov...

Looks like a mineral called phyllosilicates. Which reading around, suggests more recent water than thought.

Cool. Thanks for sharing, I want to buy a telescope now.

Your right, I can see lots of images too. I can see a blue bison kneeling down on its front legs eat the long grass as well as other things

a reply to: lostbook

Ah yes, a "color enhanced" image. Imho would be nice if they published variants with some kind of color legend in the image. As the colors are not the "true" colors and that is something non-scientists often are not aware of.

a reply to: moebius

Its important not to forget details like that.

When we build our mental picture of Mars, we cannot help but see these things in the colours we are shown, but if we really think about it, if we learn a little science, we can imagine more accurately than the pictures we see can show us, what shades and contrasts we are dealing with.

I still think that it should not be as hard as it seems to be, to just take a damned photograph that shows precisely what a human eye would.

a reply to: lostbook

Copper sulphate blue-green.

a reply to: lostbook

As you can see here from your article....

This particular dune, appearing like turquoise blue in enhanced color, is made of finer material and/or has a different composition than the surrounding.

They just made it look blue by enhancing the colors so that it could be seen easier. Cool pic though!

Who would have thunk ?
Aliens on Mars...
Come from light years away to mine the Blue "Spice"

a reply to: lostbook


The reason for the false color/enhanced color is so the researches can better see certain soils, materials, or features.

Different materials reflect different wavelengths of light, but they still may look like similar colors, making it hard to distinguish the extents of different features. So the imaging team will often artificially assign the color "blue" to the reflect light wavelength of the materials they want to study, because blue contrasts well against the yellow, brown, or ruddy hues of the surrounding soil, making the feature that they wish to study stand out against the background.

a reply to: Alien Abduct

too many 'artistic freedoms' with images communicated with the public from NASA

originally posted by: odzeandennz
a reply to: Alien Abduct

too many 'artistic freedoms' with images communicated with the public from NASA

As I said above, there are valid reasons to use false color imagery in the course of normal research, and they virtaully always indicate when an image is false color or color enhanced. It's not for artistic reason or to fool people.

I for one like to see these color-enhanced images researchers use as a part of that research. I think this dune in true color would not easily show me the intersting details, such as the edge extents.

The official HiRISE site provides approximately true-colour versions of the images too. www.uahirise.org...

Here's an (approximately) true-colour image of that dune: hirise-pds.lpl.arizona.edu...



It still looks kinda blue, which may point to basaltic material.

originally posted by: wildespace
The official HiRISE site provides approximately true-colour versions of the images too. www.uahirise.org...

Here's an (approximately) true-colour image of that dune: hirise-pds.lpl.arizona.edu...

It still looks kinda blue, which may point to basaltic material.

Still an impressive pic in close to true colours. The Pareidolia is strong in this image, I see different things depending on the colour....

a reply to: wildespace

Yep. Still blue enough to make me say "whoaaa" had i stumbled accross it whilst on a variety of psychedelics.

a reply to: wildespace

Hello, Wildespace! Haven't heard from you in a while.

a reply to: CreationBro

Stumbling around Mars on a variety of psychedelics is probably a bad idea.

a reply to: Phage

Agreed. Although, perhaps martian psychedelics and the Grateful dead playing atop Olympus Mons...maybe?



Speaking of Mars, why did they name so many things related to Mars after hell?

All of the -mons like Olympus Mons...aka de-mons

The HELLas planitia

Phobos? (fear)

Wtf is up with that?

a reply to: CreationBro

Hellas is the Greek for Greece. Nothing to do with hell.

Phobos (and Deimos) were the sons of Mars. Do you know why Mars was associated with the god of war?

originally posted by: CreationBro
All of the -mons like Olympus Mons...aka de-mons

And to continue Phage's theme, mons is Latin for hill or mountain.

But I suspect you weren't serious with the "de-mons" thing.

a reply to: Phage

Do you know why Mars was associated with the god of war?

Because JP Skipper was right, war raged on the planet at one time...