June 12, 2013
Credits: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona - Credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga/Lunar Explorer Italia/IPF
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The HiRISE Camera onboard the NASA - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been monitoring many Martian steep Slopes because some of them seem to reveal the existence of active (---> ongoing) Geologic Processes. As a matter of fact, Planetary Scientists have found, in quite a few Martian locations, the presence of many Seasonal Flows, all located on steep warm Slopes, and such a circumstance suggested that Water might still play a role in their formation's activity. For instance, the Central Hills existing inside Hale Crater are one of the aforementioned locations, with thousands of Seasonal Flows occuring on their steep Slopes (precisely, just below Bedrock Outcrops). These Flow-lines grow slowly over a period of several months, then they fade and disappear in the cold season (Southern Winter in this case); afterwards, they start forming again during the next warm seasons (such as, still in this case, the Southern Spring and Summer). In today's APOD, a very clear example of these Flow-lines, with relatively bright and dark brown-gray colored Striations extending onto and through Rocky Outcrops and Sediment Fans. Mars Local Time: 14:40 (Early Afternoon) This picture (which has been cropped from a NASA - Original Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter false color cutout identified by the serial n. ESP_031203_1440-1) has been additionally processed and then re-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. |
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