First Images From Mars

TRA_000828_1805_IRB
Yardangs in the Medusae Fossae Formation
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Note: This color image covers only the center swath of the full image, and is composed of images acquired through infrared, red, and blue-green filters. The color has been enhanced to better show the subtle color differences. It is not natural color or how it would appear to normal human vision.

This image covers a portion of an outcrop of the Medusae Fossae Formation, a series of light-toned terrains in the Martian mid-latitudes. The Medusae Fossae has been and remains one of the most enigmatic features on Mars. The unit is characterized by wind-sculpted landforms, most notably eroded ridges known as yardangs. The composition of the Medusae Fossae is not known, but candidates include indurated (hardened) volcanic ash or remnants of dust-ice mixtures that formed in a different Martian climate. This HiRISE image reveals new details of the Medusae Fossae.

Image TRA_000828_1805 was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on September 30, 2006. The full image shown below is centered at 0.5 degrees latitude, 142.1 degrees east longitude. The image is oriented such that north is towards the top. The range to the target site was 270 km (169 miles). At this distance the image scale is 27 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~81 cm across are resolved. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 3:27 PM and the scene is illuminated from the west with a solar incidence angle of 55.2 degrees, thus the Sun was about 34.8 degrees above the horizon. At a solar longitude of 113.6 degrees, the season on Mars is northern summer.


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Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at the following websites:

http://www.nasa.gov/mro

http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu

http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/HiRISE/

For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.