Mars Express (MEX) - ESA orbiter

Palomar · 2004-08-05 11:37:58

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish … mm...YUMMY!

*Tell me that's not a spectacular image.

Western flank of Olympus Mons. Distance 266 km.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-08-11 12:17:10

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish … 04]Looking North

*Nice to get a direction mention. "Perspective view." Caption mentions "tectonic faults." Taken with HRSC.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-08-17 07:36:08

http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/imag … tml]Gouges on Mars

*Taken in June, released this week.

Looking north. Dao Valles and Niger Valles areas..."at a point where the north-eastern Hellas impact crater basin and the Hesperia Planum volcanic region meet...

The images are centered at Mars longitude 93° East and latitude 32° South."

Mentions surface areas resulting from lava streams, "probably in 'run-off' process."

--Cindy

Stu · 2004-08-18 11:31:00

Not often I'm lost for words :;): but I honestly can't think of words to describe how stunning this 3R Mars Express image is...

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/mar … an-dao.jpg

Do yourself a favour - download it, grab your glasses, then set aside half an hour to just gaze down the sheer cliff walls.

Very humbling.

S

Palomar · 2004-08-24 06:31:35

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/marsexpr … l]Teardrop

*Strange. Like another pic I posted yesterday (in the "Devils & Dunes" thread), the winds are coming from an easterly direction.

Strange olive color surrounding the dune cluster. :-/ The HRSC does take true-color photos only, correct? Maybe the land around the dunes looks unusually olive due to the contrast of the color of the dunefield itself and the bit of crimson seen in the upper right-hand corner?

--Cindy

::EDIT::

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish … ]Different pic of the above -- Posted 8/25 at universetoday.com. Looks even weirder -- that "little" rash of dunes just "right there" within the crater. Wild.

Article says: "...how it got to the bottom of this crater is a mystery."

Palomar · 2004-08-30 18:25:34

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish … ?3082004]I first read this as "Eros Chasma"

*It's Eos Chasma.

What added romance in a marriage will make one misread!

The colors are so reminiscent of the desert I reside in. Especially the dusky purplish hues.

Hard to believe the highest point in the plateau is a bit over 3 miles -- dimensions so difficult to "guestimate."

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-09-02 05:26:43

http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/imag … 02.html]3D perspective of Eos Chasma

*Quite a view. Looks like you're hovering from just above and straight-on.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-09-10 14:18:12

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish … 04]Heavily eroded crater on Mars

*Solis Planum, May 2004. Blue-white areas are light haze or clouds.

Mentions tectonic "graben" structures.

"A graben is a down-dropped block of the crust resulting from extension, or pulling, of the crust. They are often seen together with features called ‘horsts’, which are upthrown blocks lying between two steep-angled fault blocks. Some of the graben shown here are about five kilometres wide."

Okaaaay...thanks for the explanation. Not all of us are professional scientists!

The more pics of Mars I see, the more I'm convinced copper and turquoise will be really popular colors there. :;):

--Cindy

djellison · 2004-09-10 16:40:15

Insane thing is - we've not seen a single image at the highest resolution from MEX yet. These are all in the 12 - 60m res range - not a single image at the <2m res yet !

Doug

Shaun Barrett · 2004-09-10 19:01:24

Thanks, Stu, for that Aug. 18th post linking to the 3-D image. I must have missed that somehow. The vertical relief is spectacular!
And thanks, Cindy, for the image of the heavily eroded crater. It makes you think, doesn't it? It appears that powerful erosive forces must have been at work over long periods for such varied relief and geology to come about. The erosion of most of the 1000 m high wall of a crater 53 kilometres wide is enough in itself to indicate the power of the forces involved, but that could have been a sudden massive flood of water. How about the 15 km diameter raised circular structure, described as inverted relief? According to the geologists, this probably started life as a crater which gradually filled with 'sediment' (sediment implies material deposited in water, generally). How long might that have taken? Then the sediment became compacted and hardened. How long would that take? Then the walls of the crater gradually eroded down, lower than the remains of the hardened sediment. How long would that take? And, if you look at the structure as it is today, you can see that even this hardened 'core' of sedimentary material has begun to erode away quite extensively.
To me, all this doesn't sit well with the idea that Mars had about a billion years of 'weather' and then things became much like the Moon during the last 3.5 billion years, with little or no change. Something's definitely not right here.
???

Palomar · 2004-10-08 05:34:47

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/marsexpr … html]Ophir Chasma

*Includes desktop and other images for viewing.

--Cindy

Shaun Barrett · 2004-10-08 07:32:02

Excellent pictures!
I now have a new desktop. :up:

I notice that all the dark sand/dust which appears in these hollows and chasms is always exactly where intuition tells you you might expect to find water if these low areas were on Earth. The shape and elevation of the dark patches is uncannily like what you would expect if the dark sand were in fact water. You never see it on raised ground or on slopes - always at the lowest points in the topography.
Interesting ... ???
I wonder if these dark patches were actually associated with former lakes and ponds in some way. Could they be somehow associated with water even today? Why doesn't the ubiquitous red dust, found everywhere on Mars, settle in these low areas and obscure the dark sand? Could it be that the areas are dark because of a still extant water table keeping the soil wetter and darker?
I really have no idea what I'm talking about - just airing a few rambling thoughts.

Palomar · 2004-10-12 10:17:36

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish … t-obscured Martian landscape

*Taken in May 2004. Dust devil tracks can be seen. :up:

"The dust devils are not limited by geomorphological boundaries: for example, their tracks cross the crater rim. Dust devil tracks can also be seen on the thick dust layer in the southern part of the crater." Yep, those critters have been whirling away. :laugh:

Oooo...check out the part about the large impact crater. Yipes. And the depth of the layer of dust/volcanic ash.

--Cindy

Shaun Barrett · 2004-10-12 20:52:10

Notice the inner slope of the crater, at about 8 o'clock, has one of those broad dark bands which created so much excitement back in 2002 (? I think). They were thought to be evidence of present-day flows of brine from a water-table just below the surface.
This dark band appears to 'flow' down to the floor of the crater, where it meets the large dark area. This large dark area is attributed to 'deflation', the "lifting and removal of loose material". The fuzziness of the rest of the picture is explained as being due to the accumulation of dust or volcanic ash
These explanations appear self-contradictory to me. The lowest part of the crater is the only part not covered with the light-coloured dust or ash, though this is where you'd expect it to accumulate the most. This lowest more-sheltered area, where the airflow is presumably the slowest, is the only place which has been subjected to "lifting and removal of loose material"! How?

The dark 'flow band' on the inner crater wall has been ignored. The low-lying darker region into which it appears to flow is assigned an explanation which, at least to me, doesn't make sense.
I think a more logical, and less contrived and convoluted, explanation might be that the dark areas on the crater wall and on the crater floor are caused by wetting with briny water.

Waddya think? ???

atomoid · 2004-10-13 01:00:22

I notice that all the dark sand/dust which appears in these hollows and chasms is always exactly where intuition tells you you might expect to find water if these low areas were on Earth. The shape and elevation of the dark patches is uncannily like what you would expect if the dark sand were in fact water. You never see it on raised ground or on slopes - always at the lowest points in the topography.
Interesting ... ???
I wonder if these dark patches were actually associated with former lakes and ponds in some way. Could they be somehow associated with water even today? Why doesn't the ubiquitous red dust, found everywhere on Mars, settle in these low areas and obscure the dark sand? Could it be that the areas are dark because of a still extant water table keeping the soil wetter and darker?
I really have no idea what I'm talking about - just airing a few rambling thoughts.

The elevation seems quite exaggerated in these "reconstructions". note that the captions on http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/Mars … bhead6]all those images say "This close-up perspective view was calculated from the digital terrain model derived from the stereo channels." anyone know if the rendering represents the "true" elevation, or if its exaggerated for illustrative/aesthetic purposes?

Shaun, about the wet mud and red dust. I tend to think that the dark stuff is actually the red dust, or maybe just dark dust like the images of the dark stuff that gets blown out of cracks and craters linked in other posts recently, but its so hard to tell true colors on Mars anyway, these mars express image colors seem sort of "rendered", it just seems too "normalized" or something(!). i tend to think its not "wet" since there isnt much "recent" terrain modifcation and erosion that would seem to imply, since the geological conditions would remain the same for so long and water, being the most volatile element on mars would impart a relatively huge influence in modifying the terrain if it were there by freezing/sublimation/melting/expaning/contracting/dissolving/depositing/flowing/aggregating... well, wind action would do a lot of shaping also, and maybe would cover up or modify any such water affects, but then i get thinking cold brine tables might not actually have much effect on the terrain in the first place if they dont act like fresh water... i tend to have second thought about everything when it comes to figuring out mars, since i dont really know what im talking about either!

and the flow]http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/dust_obscured_martian_landscape.html?12102004]"flow" in the crater in the next post, yep, those have always mystified me, nasa likes to explain them away without further inquiry as "dust avalanches" hmmm, it seems a sensible explanation, but you raise an interesting point, that would seem to suggest nasa would say that the dark floor is either "ruffled dust" like an avalanche or is different material than the "flow" feature itself that somehow end up looking the same color... neither of these explanation seems right. mystery remains.

SpaceNut · 2004-10-13 11:41:20

The main antenna for Mars Express known as the MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding) which is a spindly shaped radar antenna - which could discover underground water on Mars - will now not deploy on Europe's Mars Express spacecraft until at least March 2005.

Mars Express 'divining rod' mission delayed
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996509

Palomar · 2004-10-18 07:30:02

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish … t-obscured Martian landscape
*Taken in May 2004. Dust devil tracks can be seen.

Heres]http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/image_of_day_041018.html]Here's an UPCLOSE pic of those devil tracks :up:

Mars Express 'divining rod' mission delayed

*I wish the scientific community would quit using superstitious terms in conjunction with what they're trying to accomplish. :angry:

--Cindy

SpaceNut · 2004-10-18 07:58:13

Here is a great link to past missions and of the future for mars exploration.

Mission to Mars: Risky Business
http://www.astrobio.net/news....thold=0

Palomar · 2004-10-19 13:45:36

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish … 02004]Edge of Huygens Crater

"The rim is heavily eroded and shows a ‘dendritic’ pattern. This observation suggests surface water run-off.

Dendritic systems are the most common form of drainage system found on Earth. They consist of a main ‘river’ valley with tributaries with their own tributaries. From above, they look like a tree or a river delta in reverse."

*Yep.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-10-20 07:16:16

http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/imag … .html]Well whaddya know...

*Yet another perspective of the image above. (Aw...Santa Claus came early this year!). Actually, they're both terrific photos in their own right; the previous one better displays the dendritic pattern. Craters and "cliff walls" stark in this pic.

Such gorgeous colors.

--Cindy

SpaceNut · 2004-10-20 07:23:49

I can just make out what looks like the carving of a river bed that heads towards the small crater to the right side of the photo.

Palomar · 2004-11-03 15:18:02

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish … ]Tithonium Chasma

*Western end of Valles Marineris. Detailed caption.

--Cindy

SpaceNut · 2004-11-11 20:53:55

Martian moon Phobos in detail

Lots of details and photo to be in awe of...

hubricide · 2004-11-12 00:36:26

I wonder why it has all those parallel grooves.. It looks suspiciously like the moon is composed of a bunch of layers to me, but what that means exactly, I do not know.. How else would such parallel grooves form? Is Phobos some broken-off chunk of Mars? Did Phobos form in a localized gravity well that caused particulate matter to gather up from bottom to top in well-defined layers?

Perhaps we'll never know.

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2004-11-12 03:48:58

Anyone catch the 3-dimensional effects from SpaceNut's post

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/mar … ...res.jpg

http://www.esa.int/images/116-051004-07 … obos_L.jpg

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#51 2004-08-05 11:37:58

Re: Mars Express (MEX) - ESA orbiter

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