Gizmodo
This amazing photo was captured late last month by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it flew over the north pole of the red planet. It shows fine-grains and chunks of ice falling down the side of a 2,300-foot-high cliff and then creating a huge dust cloud on the gentle slopes below. Click through for more detailed photos and shots of the orbiting robot that took them.
What makes the image so striking is that while we've seen the results of things like this on the planet's surface, we had yet to capture a live event like this happening.
Cameras orbiting Mars have taken thousands of images that have enabled scientists to put together pieces of Mars' geologic history. However, most of them reveal landscapes that haven't changed much in millions of years. Some images taken at different times of year do show seasonal changes from one image to the next, however, it is extremely rare to catch such a dramatic event in action. (Another, unrelated, active process that has been captured by Mars cameras are dust devils.) Observing currently active processes is often a useful tool in unlocking puzzles of the past for scientists studying the Earth. Working from primarily still images, it is harder for scientists studying Mars to rely on this tool. The HiRISE image of avalanching debris is a very rare opportunity to directly do so.
This is the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a spacecraft launched in August of 2005 that was designed to search for water on Mars. It's got the largest camera ever used on a planetary mission on board, which is why we keep getting incredibly detailed images of the Martian surface like the ones above. It should keep its primary mission up for another few years, until 2010, before being used as a communications link for future spacecraft. [NASA via AP]
Comments
Amaz
Simply amazing!
It kinda looks like some helldragon.
Do you think the Martians worship our satellites as gods?
Dammit Optimus I told you to keep it on the down-lo... commense operation relocation
The sun is causing the Mars polar ice caps to melt, just like here.
Video or it didn't hap...errr...stupid soundstage is falling apart!
"It's full of stars!" -Bowman
Can anyone put the vid on youtube?
well, if there is ice on mars, doesnt that mean there is water? or was water? and dont tell me other elements can make ice. it just makes frozen other elements.
Dammit, now I have to get Val and his crew back up there to clean up all the dust and debris.....
whatever they just whipped those up in Bryce 3D
I wish they could do video, I figure the data transmission would suck pushing the video stream. Like 56k over a few millions miles. LOL Truely amazing photo though!
Erm, yes, those other elements make frozen carbon dioxide in this case... AKA "dry ice"...
FAKE! You can totally tell this is photoshopped.
nah, this is pretty neat.
@FThorn: You mean Mars' ice caps aren't melting from CO2 and global warming like they are here. Call Gore!!!!!
"All images are false color."
So all that white stuff that looks obviously like frozen water may not really be white.
OOoooh, this makes me very angry. Now find my illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator.
If theres snow, wouldn't that mean theres water?
Somebody call Al Gore!!! Global warming is spreading throughout the entire galaxy.
@FThorn: Yep green house gases and global warming on Mars - damn it's spread farther than we'd thought_ We bettter really start pushing for alternative fuels - it's bad enough we're polluting our own planet - we don't want to start polluting our neighbor planets_
On a side note - the pics are cool_ But what all the excitement over a landslide is all about ? I don't know - as it's just dirt that slid down the side of a cliff_
What ever!!
There is an atmosphere on Mars - thin though it may be - this would allow for weather_ Also - seeing as how gravity fluctuates on our own planet - it might be logical to assume that it might also flux on other planets as well_ Mars has 2 moons that would also affect gravity and weather on the planet_
Wait a minute - that sounds familiar - like maybe it does the same thing here on our planet - who'd have thought_
Unless they find a crashed space-ship or an Autobot - who cares!
Makes me wish there was another planet we could go and live on. But no, we're stuck on this one.
where does NASA get those gold garbage bags to make their satellites? does Hefty make those? i want my trash to be more fancy.
and yes, the presence of ice indicates Mars has water.
We've been on mars less then 10 years and we've already started to destroy their ecosystem
Usesless without pix...of Ingrid!
@eatmonkeygood: I'm a member of the save the Martian rock fund. With your help, we can stop NASA's brutal assault on the precious, endandered Martian substrate.
@eatmonkeygood: Well said my friend.
thats pretty neat. Ill bet there is water on mars, not enough to make it like, worth living there, but definetly some
Doesn't anyone use google anymore? Of course there is water on polar caps. AND dry ice. It's just that there is no -liquid- water (and there may have never been one, for all we know).
Existence of water is not some Earth-unique phenomenon. There's water on comets, for Halley's sake.
All we need to do is find the ancient Martian teraforming machines and we can make Mars habitable again!
global warming is even fucking the martian snowcaps.
What kind of height are we talking about? I know that the ice caps on Mars are a couple miles thick, but how high is that cliff face? It is tough to get a good perspectiveon how big that really is, I imagine it is very big.
Cheap-y foreign crap. You know where the best avalanches are made? Earth.
This is just another reason to add live video capture to thes probes.
@lmulaire: I've heard it's frozen CO2. But I'm not a esteemed climate scientist like any of these guys:
gatordent
FThorn
uberfu
vertigoh
Its not water ice, it is frozen CO2. Didn't anyone ever pay attention in their astronomy classes??? And yes, the coloring isn't "real".
If you look closely, you can see the vent hole where they escaped after setting off the terraforming device.
Only two questions.
1) Can we ski there?
2) Will my Ortovox S1 Avy Beacon work there?
The ice caps are Water Ice with a covering of Dry Ice ( frozen CO2 ) during the winter, when that hemisphere gets cold enough for CO2 to start freezing out of the atmosphere.
The MRO images are "sorta" false color.
[hirise.lpl.arizona.edu]
The HiRISE images are taken in red, blue/green, and IR ... and each of the three color detectors has a different resolution level, with the red imager going clear down to 25cm per pixel. Bandwidth to Mars is in short supply, so these imagers stagger resolution, and use non-standard colors to get the most info per byte sent ... pretty human seeable pictures are secondary.
In order to get red-green-blue true color images, some video fudging of the three transmitted images into one is used.
As for the global warming on Mars, I blame SUV use on Earth.
Tek Elements:
1) Yes
2) No
@Tek Elements:
The gravity is different, so you'd be pretty damn light. Better wear some SPF 4000 too and bundle up. I heard the UV is pretty intense & it's super cold. Oh, and the lift lines suck.
"Start the reactor...Free Mars."
I think i know what's going on there...
[static.flickr.com]
@FThorn: Global Warming!!! Someone call Al Gore about this.
Mars' polar ice is composed of carbon dioxide, water and dust. Each cap has surface deposits of CO2 that form a cover over the cap during the martian winter, but sublimates down, exposing the layer of H2O ice and dust during the martian sumer.
Scientists estimate that 80% of the southern ice caps 3km thickness is water ice.
Mars is subjected to natural forces, just like earth is. Solar wind and direct sunlight cause erosion and evaporation, which likely caused the avalanche.
At this stage of the game, we can't send anyone to Mars to find out for sure. The radiation from the sun would tear any astronauts DNA into tatters, and they would die, a very painful death.
Hmm....maybe we could send Al Gore on a fact finding mission.....just tell him ManBearPig was spotted.....
The real mystery is... What took the picture of the satellite?? WE ARE NOT ALONE!
Hey! Another Al Gore joke!!! Someone read a thread before posting! Hahahaha!!! Uh. Yeah.
@SinistarX: Google Mars. They have street view too.
lol
when will Mars be open for snowboarding?