Interesting MOC pictures - Place to post interesting MOC pictures

REB · 2004-05-04 14:33:12

Here is a neat one from the South Polar Region. Looks like Inca writing.

http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/r03_r09 … 00136.html

REB · 2004-05-04 14:35:51

Here is another one from the same area. It looks more like art than a landscape.

http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/r03_r09 … 00204.html

REB · 2004-05-10 14:33:30

The Juventae Chasma is a very interesting place. some of the features look like art in the MOC pictures
Here is a sample
http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/r03_r09 … 03652.html

Taken from here;
http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/r03_r09 … /mc18.html

Northeast Schiaparelli Crater has some beautiful, art-like features;
http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/r03_r09 … 03281.html

Taken from here;
http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/r03_r09 … /mc20.html

In both these images, I am reminded of the region Opportunity is exploring. Could the dark area’s be similar to the fields of spheres Opportunity is traveling over?

Could the lighter rock be marine deposits?

REB · 2004-05-17 14:32:54

This Noachis pit crater is one of the most intriguing craters on Mars. It appears to be an old impact crater that has been filled with ice and regolith, and in places, the ice has receded leaving pits.

http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/e19_r02 … 00805.html

http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/m19_m23 … 01812.html

http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/m19_m23 … 00091.html

http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/m19_m23 … 00643.html

Palomar · 2004-06-16 14:38:24

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.htm … Springtime in northern hemisphere

*This just in from spaceref.com. Clouds and fog "streaming away" from icecap.

--Cindy

REB · 2004-06-21 05:46:32

That is a good one. I would love to see some ground shots of fog in a canyon.

Palomar · 2004-06-21 15:25:53

That is a good one. I would love to see some ground shots of fog in a canyon.

*Yeah, that'd be cool. Marsian fog...sounds exotic (fog? exotic? after being born and raised in the Midwest with all the fog I'd ever care to see...?) :laugh:

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.htm … 175]Layers

*

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.htm … 3176]Looks like paintbrush strokes upon the ground... Really...looks like a piece of "modern art" to me. Says it's "finely bedded sedimentary rocks in western Melas Chasma, part of the vast Valles Marineris trough system." Similar formations occur in Candor Chasma.

*

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.htm … 77]yardang

Explanation in caption. Why do I get the feeling that'll become a slang term by Marsians? "Yardang it!...now where'd I leave that hammer?"

--Cindy :;):

REB · 2004-06-22 06:49:08

Cindy, I have seen many MOC Mars pictures that could be framed and hung on the wall as art.

Have you ever looked at the Gale crater?

Here are some good ones;

Great Contrast
http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/m07_m12 … 01028.html

Great Layering. Looks like it could be in Arazona
http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/e07_e12 … 01254.html

Please send a rover here;
http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/e01_e06 … 02493.html

http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/e07_e12 … 02415.html

Palomar · 2004-06-22 08:10:45

Cindy, I have seen many MOC Mars pictures that could be framed and hung on the wall as art.

*Yep. Around 1-1/2 years ago I found a really fabulous collection of black and white MOC pics, especially closeups of "Inca City." Especially stunning -- definitely could be framed as artwork.

I've tried to relocate those particular pics (they were a link in a larger web site), without success. Photos were large, too.

--Cindy

REB · 2004-06-22 08:27:51

Here is Inca City;

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/8_2 … /incacity/

REB · 2004-06-22 08:30:27

Inca City reminded me of the Mars Trees. Have you seen these very interesting formations. What the heck are they? Are they made of Hematite?

http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/fullres/divided/ … 04688a.jpg

Palomar · 2004-07-08 07:11:17

Carbon]http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=13322]"Carbon Dioxide Landscape"

*Actually is "mid-summer south polar residual cap." Looks more to me like the walls in my grandmother's old apartment than Swiss cheese. :laugh:

--Cindy

Shaun Barrett · 2004-07-08 07:26:11

It looks like some kind of exotically engraved or etched pewter to me! (Must be the filters they used that gave it that almost metallic sheen.)

atomoid · 2004-07-09 05:24:12

...During each of the three summers since the start of the MGS mapping mission in March 1999, the scarps that form mesas and pits in the "Swiss cheese"-like south polar terrain have retreated an average of about 3 meters (~1 yard). The material is frozen carbon dioxide; another 3 meters or so of each scarp is expected to be removed during the next summer, in late 2005...

...considering the area is a mile wide(would love to send a rover http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=13322]into that maze), the layer looks like its about 15 feet deep(? or is it permaCO2frost dustsoil slumping in this pattern, and not an icepack ), thats a lots of CO2 vaporizing into the atmosphere and doing its thing, more evidence supportive of the "Mars global warming" scenario?

REB · 2004-07-09 05:57:47

That CO2 landscape doesn't look real, does it. It makes a very artisitic picture.

melkor · 2004-07-11 18:40:02

Inca City reminded me of the Mars Trees. Have you seen these very interesting formations. What the heck are they? Are they made of Hematite?
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/fullres/divided/ … 04688a.jpg
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/fullres/divided/ … 04688a.jpg

Yeah... ??? What the heck is that stuff?

Also, REB, do you know where the Mars trees are? As in, where on a globe or map of Mars?

Shaun Barrett · 2004-07-11 21:31:28

Without meaning to butt in too much, I believe, from memory, these formations are situated near the south pole of Mars. We've discussed them somewhere else here in the past and somebody, by studying the shadows, had come to the conclusion these things could be about 100 metres tall.
While they do look like trees, no one could come up with a reasonable hypothesis to explain how trees could possibly thrive in polar conditions on Mars, where the winter temperatures get down to -100 deg.C and worse.
In the end, we opted for some kind of exotic process whereby saturated solutions of chemicals (or similar) had grown into tree-like formations under the alien conditions. When I say "we opted for", I mean that's about where the lame speculation ground to a halt for lack of further data!

I haven't seen any more images of the same area since those were released, so I assume the region has never been photographically revisited(?).
Considering it's such an enigmatic landform, I don't know why somebody hasn't aimed a spectrometer at it or at least taken a few higher resolution pictures.

[P.S. I remember Cindy putting forward the very pertinent point that, on Earth, trees exist as part of an intricate web of life. She pointed out the incongruity of finding a large clump of 'trees' in an especially inhospitable region of Mars; and just 'trees', mind you, in the complete absence of any other recognisable form of life.
I found this to be a particularly persuasive argument, on her part, against these formations being alive. ]

atomoid · 2004-07-12 14:47:07

I remember when Sir Arthur C. Clarke brought up this idea of trees a few years ago referring to this same image. Intriguing idea but I think its just speculation like Hoagland's giant glass tubes (which just look like sand dunes in the bottom of ravines giving the illusion of convexity). There is a whole "http://www.martianspiders.com/]Martian Spiders" page devoted to these features. Guess well have to wait for MRO to get some better shots in 2007.

IMHO I don't think these formations (the "http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/fullres/divided/m08046/m0804688a.jpg]the "trees"") stick up above the terrain much at all. They're probably just small heaps and troughs in the soil created by freeze/thaw patterns causing soil expansion around underground reserves of something that outgasses/contracts during the warmer months, and expands during the winter.

CO2 might do the trick if its outgassing, Water ice might do the trick if its crystalization/expansion. The change in volume under the soil would allow the area to slump or mound up and create dendritic cracking patterns.

The light/dark difference is merely due to frost remaining on the smoother areas. If you take a picture of this area now, it will look much different due to frost accumulation/sublimation, although the "spider" forms are actual soil disturbances so they remain and get amplified every season. The "shadows" are probably either windblown dust or just frost-free areas (due to turbulent air patterns downwind of terrain features) that looks very dark in the exposure that was needed to not overexpose the light frosted areas.

Although (not to throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water), im fairly convinced that it is possible that there might be vast bacterial colonies slowly thriving inside these areas that are metabolizing compounds and releasing heat or gas, thus creating the very conditions that are allowing these formations to propogate.

Palomar · 2004-07-13 07:05:33

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=13364]Oh I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Yardang...

...er -- anyway: Cool pic of Medusae Sulci (geez...that sounds like an anatomical region of the brain) Yardangs.

I like that word "yardang." I like yardangs themselves. When I move to Mars, I'm changing my last name to Yardang.

--Cindy Yardang

Shaun Barrett · 2004-07-13 07:40:00

What are those dark streaks down the sides of the yardangs?
???

atomoid · 2004-07-13 14:48:33

What are those dark streaks down the sides of the yardangs?
???

The dark streaks, according to NASA, are dust avalanches. They are occuring commonly in areas of Mars that are most dusty. Some think brine might be involved, since they exhibit fluid-flow characteristics, but dust avalanching explains these same features much simpler. The major brightness difference is due to the disturbed soil in the avalanche being rougher and less reflective.

Shaun Barrett · 2004-07-14 05:52:59

Hmmm, yes, I suppose we're bound to employ Occam's Razor in explaining those streaks and, if dry avalanches are perfectly able to explain them, then that's where we'll have to leave it until better evidence becomes available.
Thanks, Atomoid!
:up:

REB · 2004-07-14 06:30:09

I don't know what those Mars Trees could be. They look like dendrites crystals. I suspect they are some kind of crystal formed from water ice or CO2 ice.

We need more data. All we have is a few pictures.

Palomar · 2004-07-14 09:14:18

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040714.html]Jack Frost on Mars

*Looks abit like an elephant's hide as well. From MGS.

--Cindy

REB · 2004-07-14 09:26:36

That reminds me of the http://www.astro.uwo.ca/~jlandstr/plane … Cantaloupe Terrain on Triton

I wouldn't be surprised if they formed in a simular way.

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#1 2004-05-04 14:33:12

Re: Interesting MOC pictures - Place to post interesting MOC pictures

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