Defrosting Martian Dunes
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was a captioned image on January 6, 2023 from the science team of the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). From the caption by Alfred McEwen of the Lunar & Planetary Laboratory in Arizona:
In the late winter when first illuminated, the carbon dioxide frost at high latitudes will begin to sublimate. Over sand dunes, the defrosting spots and mass wasting on steep slopes produce striking patterns. This scene is especially artistic given the shapes of the dunes as well as the defrosting patterns.
These dunes are inside 42 mile wide Kunowsky Crater, as shown by the white dot in the overview map to the right. Located in the high latitudes of the northern lowland plains, though the defrosting involves the sublimation of the thin dry ice mantle that forms in winter, it is likely that the ground surrounding these dunes is all near surface ice, covered by dust and debris.
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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
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 photo to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was a captioned image on January 6, 2023 from the science team of the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). From the caption by Alfred McEwen of the Lunar & Planetary Laboratory in Arizona:
In the late winter when first illuminated, the carbon dioxide frost at high latitudes will begin to sublimate. Over sand dunes, the defrosting spots and mass wasting on steep slopes produce striking patterns. This scene is especially artistic given the shapes of the dunes as well as the defrosting patterns.
These dunes are inside 42 mile wide Kunowsky Crater, as shown by the white dot in the overview map to the right. Located in the high latitudes of the northern lowland plains, though the defrosting involves the sublimation of the thin dry ice mantle that forms in winter, it is likely that the ground surrounding these dunes is all near surface ice, covered by dust and debris.
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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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
Martian calligraphy?
Hi Bob, do you know what the scale is on the photo? I normally see the scale when I click on the photo.
Chris: Go here:
https://hirise-pds.lpl.arizona.edu/PDS/EXTRAS/RDR/ESP/ORB_076600_076699/ESP_076605_2370/ESP_076605_2370_MRGB.abrowse.jpg
That is the entire image, including the color strip. McEwen rotated it to make the color strip due north, and cropped the section near the center.
I would have added the scale but, as I’ve mentioned, I am having health issues that limit my working time.
Fantastic ! and inspiring my next water color project.
Thanks Bob
Bob, bringing the good stuff as always. Alien geoporn.
Thank you so much for doing this.