NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE images February 29, 2012

– Sand Dunes in the Spring http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_025416_2640

In the spring as the ice sublimates (goes directly from solid to gas) numerous seasonal phenomena are observed.

– Dunes on Ridges http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_025625_1580

These dunes may be active today, but we haven’t yet observed them at significantly different times to measure the movement.

– Old Salt http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_025625_1580

These patches are very similar in color, morphology, and geologic setting to larger deposits thought to consist of chloride salts, like table salt.

– Tilted and Layered Bedrock Blocks in a Large Crater inside Becquerel Crater http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_025782_2020

There is a crater nearly 50 kilometers in diameter inside the 167-kilometer Becquerel Crater, named after Antoine Henri Becquerel, the discoverer of radioactivity along with Marie and Pierre Curie.

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.