NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE Imagery Release 3 March 2008
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Onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the HiRISE camera offers unprecedented image quality, giving us a view of the Red Planet in a way never before seen. It’s the most powerful camera ever to leave Earth’s orbit.
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Colorful Knobs in Ariadnes Colles The older bright rock that is now exposed from underneath exhibits raised ridges that are likely fractures that have been filled in with material. |
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Clay Minerals in Nili Fossae The many varieties in color are attributed to variations in the minerals and rock types in this location. |
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Complex Folds in Hellas Basin In some places, these layers appear to have been soft and deformed like taffy, experiencing what is know as ductile deformation. |
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Caught in Action: Avalanches on North Polar Scarps A rare treat: HiRISE captures at least four avalanches in action on the Red Planet. |
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Finely-Layered Rocks in Ius Chasma Much of this region has been covered by dust and sand, that is eroded by wind over time and exposes the light-toned rock underneath the surface. |
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Colorful Sulfates in Aureum Chaos The color differences in this image are a result of variations in the types of sulfates and other minerals present in these rocks. |
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Northern Plains Seasonal Frost at Phoenix Landing Site The polygonal patterns on the surface are commonly referred to as patterned ground and are often found in high latitude and high alpine environments on Earth. |
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North Polar Site to Monitor Defrosting on Dunes |
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Slope Streaks on the Rim of Henry Crater Slope streak formation is among the few known processes currently active on Mars making slope streaks some of the youngest features on the Martian surface. |
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Light-Toned Rock in Southern Highlands The outcrop in this image is located on the floor of a large, old impact crater, and shows the nature of some of the infilling material. |
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Layered Rocks in Meridiani A broad expanse of light-toned sediments in Terra Meridiani, near the Martian equator. |
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Fretted Terrain and Fresh Crater Much of the material filling the trough in this image has a pitted texture, likely formed when ice goes directly to a gas. |
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Complex Dunes in Kaiser Crater The color subimage of this observation shows a group of north-south trending longitudinal dunes that become sinuous towards the east. |
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Bedrock in an Unnamed Crater Near Hellas Planitia The bedrock visible in this image is crisscrossed by a dense network of rectilinear lines, some of which can be followed for hundreds of meters. |
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The Earth and Moon as Seen from Mars A special HiRISE treat: our world and our Moon as pictured from orbit around the Red Planet. |
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Valleys in Melas Chasma This location is interesting to scientists because it shows water activity that resulted from rain in a relatively young region near the equator of Mars. |
