Craters in slush on Mars
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on October 27, 2020 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It was taken not for any particular research project, but as one of the periodic images the camera team needs to take maintain the camera’s proper temperature. When they need to do this, they often will take a picture in an area not previously viewed at high resolution. Sometimes the image is boring. Sometimes they photograph some geology that is really fascinating, and begs for some young scientist to devote some effort to studying it.
In this case the photo was of the generally featureless northern lowland plains. What the image shows us is a scattering of impact craters that appear to have cut into a flat plain likely saturated with ice very close to the surface.
How can I conclude so confidently that these craters impacted into ice close to the surface? The location gives it away.
The photo’s location is shown by the white dot in the center of the overview map to the right. The red marks indicate other MRO high resolution images. As you can see, very few high resolution images have been taken in this area, which is why the camera team probably took it, to help fill this gap.
At 52 degrees northern latitude, this spot is high in the mid-latitude bands where scientists have detected much evidence of glacial ice. Some of that evidence are the ice scarps found only 110 miles to the northeast inside Milankovič Crater.
Then there is the Starship prime candidate landing zone about 660 miles to the southwest in Arcadia Planitia, with the Erebus Mountains about 150 to 200 miles beyond to the west. This icy region is where one scientist has said, “I think you could dig anywhere to get your water ice.”
Many of these small craters are probably secondary impacts from the event that created Milankovič Crater. Looking closely at the full image we can see what appears two scattered impact events. The many small impacts from the earlier event are now faded with time and erosion. The newer event produced the sharper craters that appear to have plunged into slushy ice.
Click for full image.
Then there is the red streak that cuts across the photo. This is almost certainly a dust devil track. Red in MRO color strips usually indicates dust [pdf], while the blue likely indicates ice.
The image to the right, cropped to post here, was taken by MRO’s context camera and covers a wider area in the same general region. You can see many such dust devil tracks cutting across this mostly featureless plain. There is also a hint that the tracks are repeating over the same tracks, a phenomenon of favoring specific ground and seen elsewhere on Mars and not at present completely understood.
As always, even a relatively boring place on Mars yields fascinating mysteries.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on October 27, 2020 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It was taken not for any particular research project, but as one of the periodic images the camera team needs to take maintain the camera’s proper temperature. When they need to do this, they often will take a picture in an area not previously viewed at high resolution. Sometimes the image is boring. Sometimes they photograph some geology that is really fascinating, and begs for some young scientist to devote some effort to studying it.
In this case the photo was of the generally featureless northern lowland plains. What the image shows us is a scattering of impact craters that appear to have cut into a flat plain likely saturated with ice very close to the surface.
How can I conclude so confidently that these craters impacted into ice close to the surface? The location gives it away.
The photo’s location is shown by the white dot in the center of the overview map to the right. The red marks indicate other MRO high resolution images. As you can see, very few high resolution images have been taken in this area, which is why the camera team probably took it, to help fill this gap.
At 52 degrees northern latitude, this spot is high in the mid-latitude bands where scientists have detected much evidence of glacial ice. Some of that evidence are the ice scarps found only 110 miles to the northeast inside Milankovič Crater.
Then there is the Starship prime candidate landing zone about 660 miles to the southwest in Arcadia Planitia, with the Erebus Mountains about 150 to 200 miles beyond to the west. This icy region is where one scientist has said, “I think you could dig anywhere to get your water ice.”
Many of these small craters are probably secondary impacts from the event that created Milankovič Crater. Looking closely at the full image we can see what appears two scattered impact events. The many small impacts from the earlier event are now faded with time and erosion. The newer event produced the sharper craters that appear to have plunged into slushy ice.
Click for full image.
Then there is the red streak that cuts across the photo. This is almost certainly a dust devil track. Red in MRO color strips usually indicates dust [pdf], while the blue likely indicates ice.
The image to the right, cropped to post here, was taken by MRO’s context camera and covers a wider area in the same general region. You can see many such dust devil tracks cutting across this mostly featureless plain. There is also a hint that the tracks are repeating over the same tracks, a phenomenon of favoring specific ground and seen elsewhere on Mars and not at present completely understood.
As always, even a relatively boring place on Mars yields fascinating mysteries.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
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