NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE Images – May 15, 2013

– Seasonal Flows in Palikir Crater http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_031102_1380

Palikir Crater, which sits inside the much large Newton crater, contains thousands of individual flows called “Recurring Slope Linea”, or RSL.

– Polygonal Dunes http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_031138_1380

Polygons are of great interest because they often indicate the presence of shallow ice or of desiccation such as in a mud flat.

– Dust Devil Tracks and Slope Streaks on Martian Sand Dunes http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_031199_2070

This observation shows a sand dune field in the Nili Fossae region of Mars. The dark lines swirling over the surface of the dunes are the tracks of dust devils.

-A Possible Landing Site for NASA http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_031249_1785

HiRISE has become an invaluable tool for other Mars missions to help select landing sites that are safe and scientifically compelling.

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.