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Who would ever imagine that sand dunes could look so incredible? In this beautiful image, sand trapped in an impact crater in the Red Planet's Moachis Terra region have been sculpted by the winds of Mars into a vast and variegated landscape. More »
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The University of Arizona's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera is an incredible piece of equipment. Currently circling the Red Planet aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the instrument is capable of capturing photographs of the Martian surface at unprecedented resolution, averaging about 25 centimeters per pixel. More »
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For years, The University of Arizona's HiRISE camera has been snapping breathtaking high-resolution images of the Red Planet from aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. And now, the UofA's HiRISE team has released an awesome new imaging application called HiVIEW that lets you explore thousands upon thousands of ultra hi-res Martian images at unprecedented levels of detail. More »
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The team behind NASA's HiRISE orbiter took their images of Mars' surface and turned them into some hypnotic videos, featuring cool lounge beats. The surreal shapes of Mars' terrain mix with the slinky tunes to trip you out. [MSNBC] More »
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At the bottom of a crater on Mars, these dunes are covered in sheets of dry ice. As sand blows across the top of the ice, the sheets break up and blow apart, creating these streaks and lozenges. More »
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We've seen the astounding images of the Phoenix Lander that the HiRISE satellite camera sent from its bird's-eye view in Martian orbit. But what about the rest of the robot explorers on the Red Planet? There are five successful landers other than Phoenix and HiRISE has found those, too. Now the search is on for the mysterious Martian Polar Lander, which scientists assume crashed on the planet in 1999. More »
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Here's the most violent event ever observed on Mars, tons of rock, dust and ice plummeting down a 700-meter cliff at 15 meters per second. It's one of four avalanches the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the Mars orbiter observed on the north polar scarps of Mars. The white material at the top of the cliff is carbon-dioxide ice, and it's possible spring sunshine caused the ice to expand and break, sending loose dust and ice hurtling down the slope. Another possible explanation: A Marsquake. Click through for the full set of images. More »
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The Martian wind has cut deep crevasses into this crater in the Terra Cimmeria region. The edges of these dunes look sort of like fins in this new image from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. But the fins are actually double "horns" where the wind from the East hit the dunes. You can also see "dark, sinuous forms" where Martian "dust devils" pushed away the brighter dust and uncovered the darker surface. Click through for another image. More »
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New images give clues to the reasons for the "spiders" and "dark fans" that appear on Mars' south pole every spring. Sunlight filters through the layer of dry ice covering the pole and turns the bottom layer to gas. The gas forms spider-shaped channels trying to escape the ice, and then erupts in fan-shaped jets of white carbon dioxide and black dust. Images by HiRISE. [National Geographic] More »
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