NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE Images – May 16, 2012

– A Youthful Crater in the Cydonia Colles Region http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_025716_2200

Just what makes a Martian crater youthful, in a geologic sense? Very old craters tend to have eroded rims and can have plenty of material that’s filled in the floor.

– Monitoring Dune Gullies http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_026506_1300

Remarkably, we have learned that the gullies form primarily or entirely during seasons when there is carbon dioxide frost on the ground.

– Streamlined Landforms near the Cerberus Fossae http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_026580_1940

One of the earliest observations of Mars that indicated that water once flowed across its surface was the presence of large streamlined landforms.

– Sand Ripples at a Potential Landing Site http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_026726_1790

Landing of the surface of Mars requires extensive planning and imaging reconnaissance. This terrain west of Aeolis Planum is being considered as landing site for a future Mars mission.

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.