Incredible HiRISE colour images of Mars

I just came across this truly amazing collection of colour photographs taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. At the moment the camera is being used to look for possible landing sites for future missions.

The pictures are quite large, so I won't display any, but check out this link:
Colour Images

I would also recommend visiting the HiRISE homepage over here. It's updated regularly and has some truly amazing images.

I am somewhat unsure as to how these images have been edited though, as I suspect these are not the original colours, although they are probably not too far off. Anyone have any information on this? Unfortunately though the Orbiter seems to have been lost to the depths of Space since November the 2nd as it has not made contact with Earth since

Enjoy the pics!

Those are some really stunning pictures.

I dont really believe the orbiter breaking... more likely they got some shots of stuff they decided the dumbed down public should not know.

Assuming the colors in these pictures are artificially modified, its easy to see that some parts of these pictures could be mountains, oceans, rivers and so on.


[edit on 14-11-2007 by Copernicus]

reply to post by Copernicus


Perhaps, although the Orbiter has exceeded its life-expectancy by some 7 years now, as it was expected to cease functioning in 2000. I think more probably it has merely passed away in it's old age.

mars i reallly wierd man,
and when u look at this pictures is almost impossible not to think that there is a possibilitie that mars was like earth.




[edit on 14-11-2007 by Drzava]

I was reading this morning about Spirit, how it's got 300+ watts a day, which is about 3 hours battery life per day.... and one of them has some busted components and dust up in their panels, think they're on their last legs.

marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov...

That page says the Surveyor has ceased working in 2006 due to NASA errors w/ it's batteries... then, in that article, they try to defend themselves w/ how much longer the mission lasted -- a battery mistake/error? NASA is a joke when it can't operate a satellite correctly, that Surveyor could of last longer then the rovers, should they know what they're doing.

At least this Reconnaissance orbiter is working fine.

mars.jpl.nasa.gov...
crism.jhuapl.edu...


[edit on 14-11-2007 by anhinga]

To clarify a few things here that seem to be leading to some confusion:

1. As 'anhinga' correctly stated in the post above, The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is working just fine and is still taking pictures. These pictures from the OP are from that MRO (which has the HiRISE camera on board).

The probe that was lost was the Mars Global Surveyor. It was already way past it's expected life when it was lost, but it in fact was lost because of human error. But as I said, even though the Global Surveyor was lost, MRO is still in orbit taking these breathtaking Hi-res pictures (much more hi-res than the Global Survayor was capable of), and is scheduled to stay operable for several years.

2. Also, as the OP alluded to, these pictures are NOT TRUE COLOR. The article even states that the colors have been enhanced and do not look like they would appear to the human eye. NASA often assigns different contrasting colors to different intensities of light to help see different materials better. NASA calls these Enhanced Color photos. Sometimes things which we see as blue and yellow in these Enhaced Color photographs are just different shades of reddish-brown when seen in approximate true color.

NASA uses the term approximate true color for pictures most of us would call "real color pictures". They use the word 'approximate' because there is no such thing as a true color camera. All digital cameras (including the one you own) take pictures in shades of grey and use filters and computers to create "approximate true color" pictures, based on the intensity of light.

The photos in the OP are not "Approximate true color', but are in fact 'Enhanced Color'


Having said all that, these are certainly stunning photos, and thanks for posting them. Cool.


Edit: Minor typos

[edit on 11/14/2007 by Soylent Green Is People]

These pictures are quite quite wonderful!!! However, I still love the images of Mars I get by looking through my telescope.

Has anyone spotted the face in the picture with the tagline "Southern Layered Mound and Floor in Gale Crater"?