Astronomy Picture of the Day - powered by LUNEXIT.IT

This image shows a so-called "Exposure" of the North Polar Layered Deposits (or also NPLD, for short), with strange-looking Streaks superimposed on some of the Layers. These Streaks could have formed through Aeolian Activities which, in this case, could have consisted of Winds blowing bright Water Frost ALL over the Surface, or Winds which removed fresh Water Frost from the Surface or, maybe and in the end, by the action of Winds that blew dark material (we suggest Dust and Ashes) all over the Frost. Whereas that we, as IPF, find the aformentioned suggested hypotheses not convincing at all, we can say that these Streaks, however - and whatever their cause might have been -, do not make it really difficult to see an extremely interesting "Angular Unconformity" which characterizes this whole area and that runs from the upper left to the lower right of the photographed portion of North Polar Terrain.

The Unconformity, for those of you who are unfamiliar with this kind of Surface Feature, can be easily traced by finding the exact place (actually it is a diagonal and very well-defined line that runs all the way through the picture, from the upper left to the lower right) where the Layered Deposits located and well visible (mostly) in the upper right portion of the image got, litterally, truncated by another group of Layered Deposits (these located and well visible, instead, mostly in the lower left portion of the frame). This relationship between the two groups of Layered Deposits shows that the a huge portion of them was eroded in this area (for reasons that are and, likely, will remain unknown), probably a few millions of years ago, before younger Layered Deposits got over and above them. The Streaks that got over the Layered Deposits, instead, formed VERY recently, such as during the current Northern Summer and, most likely, they shall not persist (meaning that they will not remain visible) for a long time.

Mars Local Time: 13:06 (Early Afternoon)
Coord. (centered): 85,392° North Lat. and 115,143° East Long.
Spacecraft altitude: 319,6 Km (such as about 199,8 miles)
Original image scale range: 64,0 cm/pixel (with 2 x 2 binning) so objects ~ 1 mt and 92 cm across are resolved
Map projected scale: 50 cm/pixel
Map projection: POLAR STEREOGRAPHIC
Emission Angle: 1,9°
Sun - Mars - MRO (or Phase) Angle: 59,5°
Solar Incidence Angle: 61° (meaning that the Sun was about 29° above the Local Horizon at the time that the picture was taken)
Solar Longitude: 100,3° (Northern Summer - Southern Winter)
Credits: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

This frame has been colorized in Absolute Natural Colors (such as the colors that a human eye would actually perceive if someone were onboard the NASA - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and then looked down, towards the Surface of Mars), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team.