A Martian crater with a surface pattern that resembles hanging draperies
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on January 27, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and shows what the scientists label a “streak-spoke pattern” inside the crater. To my eye, the pattern more resembles hanging draperies, neatly tied near the top and then pulled apart as they descend to the ground.
This photo was a follow-up to a previous picture by MRO on February 4, 2008, more than seven Martian years ago, to see if there had been any identifiable changes in that time. Both images were taken in springtime, and despite the passage of time, the 2023 image shows no obvious changes from the 2008 photo.
What caused this distinct pattern? The first guess would be the wind, except if so shouldn’t there have been some change over seven Martian years?
The white dot north of the Starship candidate landing zone on the overview map to the right marks the location of this crater, at 45 degrees north latitude on the vast Martian northern lowland plains. At this latitude there is a lot of near surface ice, and this crater is no exception. Not only does the terrain around the crater have features that invoke ice (such as cracks), the crater itself appears filled with glacial ice, as indicated by the cracks near the crater’s interior rim.
My wild guess for the creation of this pattern is the Sun itself. At this latitude the Sun would generally be to the south. If the slope of the glacier inside the crater is just right, as the Sun rises in the east, crosses the sky, and then sets in the west, its light could just touch the surface in such a manner as to melt away this kind of pattern, especially as the Sun’s height from the southern horizon rises and falls with the seasons.
This is a wild guess, of course, based on nothing, and is almost certainly utterly wrong. The cause of the pattern could be from many other things, but don’t ask me to name them, for I have no idea what they might be.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on January 27, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and shows what the scientists label a “streak-spoke pattern” inside the crater. To my eye, the pattern more resembles hanging draperies, neatly tied near the top and then pulled apart as they descend to the ground.
This photo was a follow-up to a previous picture by MRO on February 4, 2008, more than seven Martian years ago, to see if there had been any identifiable changes in that time. Both images were taken in springtime, and despite the passage of time, the 2023 image shows no obvious changes from the 2008 photo.
What caused this distinct pattern? The first guess would be the wind, except if so shouldn’t there have been some change over seven Martian years?
The white dot north of the Starship candidate landing zone on the overview map to the right marks the location of this crater, at 45 degrees north latitude on the vast Martian northern lowland plains. At this latitude there is a lot of near surface ice, and this crater is no exception. Not only does the terrain around the crater have features that invoke ice (such as cracks), the crater itself appears filled with glacial ice, as indicated by the cracks near the crater’s interior rim.
My wild guess for the creation of this pattern is the Sun itself. At this latitude the Sun would generally be to the south. If the slope of the glacier inside the crater is just right, as the Sun rises in the east, crosses the sky, and then sets in the west, its light could just touch the surface in such a manner as to melt away this kind of pattern, especially as the Sun’s height from the southern horizon rises and falls with the seasons.
This is a wild guess, of course, based on nothing, and is almost certainly utterly wrong. The cause of the pattern could be from many other things, but don’t ask me to name them, for I have no idea what they might be.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Sure Starship hasn’t made it up there yet?
That’s what I would expect.
Land here Elon…there’s a cargo cult waiting.