Another sight of Mars, truly another world

I came across these pictures from Mars, they are not what I am used to and I think you will enjoy. The descriptions were not in english so they are my translation.

The American spaceprobe Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) from NASA orbits Mars for five years. During this period it captured some of the most astounishing pictures and sent them back to Earth. The pictures show an unknown face of the planet.

Pictures:

What tot hink of these sanddunes near the Northpole of the Red Planet. Together they make a sea of sand, much like our own Sahara desert in Africa. This picture has been teken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. MRO watched the sanddunes for the past few years and concluded their appearance changes remarkably fast.

In the region where MRO took this picture, starshaped troughs of carbondioxide have emerged through the ages. Scientists think the shapes came to be because gas escaped from beneath an earlier icy-plain. With the gas, dust as well found it’s way up. Once on the surface it formed these odd shapes. There is also a spidershaped version of the phenomenon.

This coloured image from the Jezero-crater’s delta would once have been a lake. The pictures captured by the MRO throughout the years, supposedly show Mars was once rich in rivers and lakes. These waters could possibly have bore life.

By manipulating the colors of this image, NASA wants to show that Mars consists of many different kinds of stones and minerals. The light surface would be clay and is from the time when the Red Planet still had a lot of water.

This crater near Mawrth Vallis has a diameter of approximatly 4 km. The surface could be an important piece of the puzzle in the search for the water-rich history of Mars. The impact of a meteor gives us an unprecedented peek in the different layers of the surface.

Apart from capturing images of interesting places, the MRO also has to look out for potential landing-sites for the rovers. This Image was part of an investigation of over 24 places where the vehicle from NASA was to land. In the picture you see the Nili Fossae region. The spaceprobe from the European Space Agency (ESA), Mars Express Orbiter, had shown earlier Nili Fossae is rich in minerals.

In this picture the icecap of the Northpole of Mars is showing. Scientists have shown with the images from the MRO, that the upper layer of Mars is harder and colder than first was thought. Liquid water and organisms, if there, would therefor have to be at greater depth than was first assumed.

Well, I thought they were pretty cool, especially the ice cap one.


This link has some equally awesome images, these are from our own planet Earth:

nieuws.nl.msn.com...

reply to post by j-man


All I can say is WOW, do you have a link to those pictures? The one you provided does'nt work. Thanks

Very cool pictures. Lots of area to explore on that planet. Thanks for posting!

reply to post by bluemirage5

Sorry for the confusion it wasn't a link, these are all the picutres I found

reply to post by j-man


Absolutely stunning. The only thing I don't get is, why do those dunes look like they are full of crystals? (1st pic)

reply to post by j-man


I've been collecting pictures (via links) for quite some time for a school project so if you can provide, I'd be gratefully appreciative

reply to post by bluemirage5

Here is the link to the Mars images.
nieuws.nl.msn.com...

I also added a link to some equally awesome pictures of earth in my OP

WOW!
Those are fantastic!

The 5th one down almost looks like there is a ripple on water in the bottom of the crater.
Very cool find

reply to post by j-man


You're a honey.......thanks heaps; my son is going to be wrapped when he comes home from school.

Already star/flagged for you!

so much for the red rocky planet with nothing of interest, that is generally put out there in the mainstream..

makes me think, all this amazing stuff that has been discovered recently on our nearest and most studied neighbour.. god knows what were going to find on all these other planets and many moons out there in our solar system..

Originally posted by j-man
I came across these pictures from Mars, they are not what I am used to and I think you will enjoy. The descriptions were not in english so they are my translation.

The American spaceprobe Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) from NASA orbits Mars for five years. During this period it captured some of the most astounishing pictures and sent them back to Earth. The pictures show an unknown face of the planet.

Pictures:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/920cdb3f603b.png[/atsimg]

What tot hink of these sanddunes near the Northpole of the Red Planet. Together they make a sea of sand, much like our own Sahara desert in Africa. This picture has been teken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. MRO watched the sanddunes for the past few years and concluded their appearance changes remarkably fast.

Nice pics!

This image makes me doubt the claim that it's sand we're looking at. Sand wouldn't allow for steep sides and deep caverns with such a sharp angle. Sand rolls at slight angles. It could look like this if there was water frozen in with the sand or is it really ice?

Just a thought.

reply to post by jude11

Areal shots can be very misleading and give you a perspective you aren't used to,,, This is a picture from earth:
www.sciencephoto.com...

and I'm pretty sure it's sand

reply to post by j-man


Dear j-man,

Thanks for the pictures, truly lovely.

Originally posted by Misterlondon
so much for the red rocky planet with nothing of interest, that is generally put out there in the mainstream..

makes me think, all this amazing stuff that has been discovered recently on our nearest and most studied neighbour.. god knows what were going to find on all these other planets and many moons out there in our solar system..

I hear you man, but I think priority should be a manned mission to Mars... And I don't know if it's even possible to stay in orbit of a moon for a very long time, especially the ones near jupiter and saturn due to gravitational issues.

I want to go to Mars so badly now...

Its possible to stay in orbit of any moon, you just have to be closer to the moon's gravitational pull than the next strongest gravitational field, usually the planet it is orbiting. NASA's DAWN mission will orbit two different asteroids, ESA's Rosetta mission will also orbit an asteroid. There are no missions that have the propulsion capabilities in the order of magnitude required for a planetary moon insertion, Cassini is conducting many close Saturnian moon flybys, most notably Titan and Enceladus, and it will point it's interments toward non-targeted flybys of other moons should one present a close approach opportunity. In short a lot of reserve power/fuel must be transported to an alien planet for a alien lunar orbital insertion, space probes usually carry no fuel tanks.

reply to post by j-man


Nice thread

Sight-seeing on Mars would be a whole new experiance There is one image i want to add, i hope that is ok??

This particular object or depression is at the South Pole on Mars and i think it is interesting for a couple of reasons;

It looks great, the ''swiss cheese'' formations are amazing and the peeps at Hirise can't decide on exactly what caused this massive crater like depression.


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/0a7e599432bb.jpg[/atsimg]

Circular Feature in South Polar Residual Cap - PSP_005349_0930

This 4 kilometer diameter feature near the edge of the South polar residual cap was recognized in Mariner 9 and Viking Orbiter images taken in the 1970s, but its origin could not be inferred. It was therefore targeted for HiRISE stereo imaging.
The bright areas in this image are covered by carbon dioxide frost, and the "swiss cheese" terrain typical of the south polar residual cap covers much of the imaged area. The dark walls of the circular depression do not have as much frost on them, and are fractured in a polygonal pattern. Apparently the surface of the walls has been extensively modified by thermal expansion and contraction of water ice.


Full Article - HiRise

Full Image Links

HiRise1
HiRise2

reply to post by Havick007

Awesome pic, looks like bacteria under a microscope Makes me wonder, they should have more pictures of that particular feature right? or at least a better resolution. I mean, they can't make all those assumptions about it's origin and composition by a picture with this much detail...

reply to post by j-man


Yeah on the main Hirise link i posted, it has various images and in different format such as IRB and RGB colour etc.

Although i actually found it on Google Mars, so i am sure there would be MOC, CTX etc - although i have found that HiRise has the best res and quality (obviously) and next to that is MOC. Although as the HiRise article states it was also imaged by Viking and Mariner 9, so there would have to be archived images of the same area floating around the net.

reply to post by j-man


oh and i forgot to add -

Yeah i got that impression too, those formations are so strange and it almost seems like bacteria or cells of some type but on a massive scale. Apart from the actual depression which is very odd and unlike a normal crater, those formations always stood out to me.

Note that what you see is not the true color of Mars. The colors became jumbled that red (as seen on earth) became maroon (as seen on Mars), blue became red and green became gray or unnoticed in the background. This was confirmed when the rover with those colors showed different colors as seen from earth. I wonder why NASA has to distort the colors?