NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE Images – April 18, 2012

– Active Dune Gullies in Kaiser Crater http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_025900_1330

Gullies remain an interesting feature to study on Mars, especially because we are still learning about their formation and what processes still act on them.

– Disappearing Boulder Tracks http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_026055_1985

This follow-up image to an earlier observation shows that the smaller dark tracks are gone, and the larger ones have faded considerably.

– Late Springtime Defrosting of Northern Dunes http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_026226_2565

Every winter, dunes and other surfaces at these northern latitudes are coated with several tens of centimeters of carbon dioxide frost and ice, plus a minor amount of water frost.

– Landslides in an Impact Crater http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_026515_1435

The many large landslides inside Valles Marineris are well known, but there are also landslides elsewhere on Mars.

All of the HiRISE images are archived here: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/

Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is online at http://www.nasa.gov/mro. The mission is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, of Denver, is the prime contractor and built the spacecraft. HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., of Boulder, Colo., built the HiRISE instrument.