io9: hirise

Join the First-Ever Search for a Shipwreck on Mars!

Michael Reilly — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:35:53 PDT

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.

The Planetary Society is heading up the effort, but they need your help: they've got a stack of high-res images of the likely crash area that require a human pair of eyeballs to examine. Find the polar lander and you'll go down as the first explorer in history to discover a shipwreck on Mars.

[Check out images of the other successful landers (Viking I and II, Mars Pathfinder, Spirit, and Opportunity) here]

Source: The Planetary Society

An Avalanche On Mars

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:30:34 PST

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.

[Hyakutake 1957]

Dust Devils Of Mars

charliejane — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 06:20:34 PST

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.

[HiRISE]

Martian Spiders Launch Dark Jets

charliejane — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:30:00 PST

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]