Archive for the ‘Science’ Category
February 18th, 2010
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- NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
A new twist on the images snapped by the UA’s HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter: An enhanced 3-D image of the Mojave Crater on Mars:
The vertical dimension is exaggerated three-fold compared with horizontal dimensions in the synthesized images of a portion of the crater’s wall. The resulting images look like the view from a low-altitude aircraft. They reflect one use of digital modeling derived from two observations by the orbiter’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera.This enhanced view shows material that has ponded and is backed up behind massive blocks of bedrock in the crater’s terrace walls. Hundreds of Martian impact craters have similar ponding with pitted surfaces. Scientists believe these “pitted ponds” are created when material melted by the crater-causing impacts is captured behind the wall terraces.
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We got some good news about the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter from the morning daily this weekend: The UA Lunar and Planetary Lab says the MRO should be working fine again after some repairs.
We’re delighted to hear that we’re going to continue to get images like these:
- NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
- NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
The top image shows bright layered deposits near the junction of Coprates Chasma and Melas Chasma, part of Valles Marineris.
The lower is image is of barchan dunes. The LPL’s Andrea Philippoff tells us:
Barchan dunes are common on both Earth and Mars. These dunes are very distinctive in shape, and are important because they can tell scientists about the environment in which they formed.Barchans form in wind regimes that blow
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- NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Here’s one I missed in all the election excitement: The HiRISE camera aboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted the Phoenix Mars Lander on the frosty northern plains of Mars.
Lori Stiles of University Communications tells us:
The HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured one image of the Phoenix lander on July 30, 2009, and the other on Aug. 22, 2009. That’s when the sun began rising over the northern polar plains at the end of the northern hemisphere winter, the imaging team said.The new images are available at the HiRISE Web site.
“We decided to try imaging the site despite the low light levels,” said. HiRISE team members Ingrid Spitale of the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.
Now if only Phoenix still works after all that time under Martian ice…
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UA scientist Omar Tonsi Eldakar reveals that the female water strider is more attracted to geeks than jocks.
Eldakar notes:
Nice guys don’t always finish last. In this study we’ve shown that it’s possible for non-aggressive males to have the advantage.
Mari N. Jensen of the UA College of Science delivers a dispatch after the jump.
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