Martian stucco
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on January 24, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Labeled simply as a “terrain sample,” it was likely taken not as part of any specific research request but to fill a gap in the schedule in order to maintain the camera’s proper temperature.
In this case the camera team got something quite intriguing. The entire terrain is reminiscent of stucco found on the outside walls of southwest homes. What makes even more intriguing is that the stucco appears to be material that has covered the terrain, based on the two craters that appear half-buried by it. Moreover, this picture only captures a small portion of this landscape, which extends like this over an area approximately 40 miles squared.
What caused this strange terrain? As always, the overview map below provides a clue, though no firm answers.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location, on the edge of the Medusae Fossae Formation, the largest volcanic ash deposit on Mars. The white outline surrounding the dot indicates the approximate area covered by this strange stucco terrain.
As a wild guess, it would appear the stucco material could be volcanic ash that has blown down from the higher mounds of ash to the north. Why it forms this endless plain of stucco however remains a bafflement. Could the thin Martian atmosphere whip up such shapes? It seems unlikely. Wind would normally produce dunes, and this stucco looks nothing like that.
Maybe this terrain was once covered with ice, which sublimated away a long time ago. As it did so could it have pulled up the ash to form the stucco? Who knows? The region is now in Mars’ dry tropics, so if water or ice had ever helped shape this landscape it did so in the very distant past.
Just another alien mystery on Mars.
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
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on January 24, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Labeled simply as a “terrain sample,” it was likely taken not as part of any specific research request but to fill a gap in the schedule in order to maintain the camera’s proper temperature.
In this case the camera team got something quite intriguing. The entire terrain is reminiscent of stucco found on the outside walls of southwest homes. What makes even more intriguing is that the stucco appears to be material that has covered the terrain, based on the two craters that appear half-buried by it. Moreover, this picture only captures a small portion of this landscape, which extends like this over an area approximately 40 miles squared.
What caused this strange terrain? As always, the overview map below provides a clue, though no firm answers.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location, on the edge of the Medusae Fossae Formation, the largest volcanic ash deposit on Mars. The white outline surrounding the dot indicates the approximate area covered by this strange stucco terrain.
As a wild guess, it would appear the stucco material could be volcanic ash that has blown down from the higher mounds of ash to the north. Why it forms this endless plain of stucco however remains a bafflement. Could the thin Martian atmosphere whip up such shapes? It seems unlikely. Wind would normally produce dunes, and this stucco looks nothing like that.
Maybe this terrain was once covered with ice, which sublimated away a long time ago. As it did so could it have pulled up the ash to form the stucco? Who knows? The region is now in Mars’ dry tropics, so if water or ice had ever helped shape this landscape it did so in the very distant past.
Just another alien mystery on Mars.
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