[meteorite-list] Digging For Hidden Treasure on Mars (Mars Express)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2013 12:52:35 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201303251952.r2PJqZN6024228_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Digging_for_hidden_treasure_on_Mars

Digging for hidden treasure on Mars
European Space Agency
25 March 2013

ESA's Mars Express has spent nearly ten years imaging the Red
Planet, and there are plenty of hidden treasures buried in the
mission's rich picture archive.

HRSCview <http://hrscview.fu-berlin.de> is a web interface to the
archive that offers a chance to browse and explore any region of
the Red Planet through the eyes of Mars Express with images that
have not necessarily been highlighted by formal media releases.

As Planetary Society blogger Bill Dunford puts it: "The glamour shots
of the planets that space agencies release are always gorgeous - but
sometimes it's fun to wander out on your own."

Indeed, Bill took a hike through the maze of valleys in the Noctis
Labyrinthus region of Mars earlier this year using HRSCview as a
tour guide, to produce this beautiful mosaic.

Noctis Labyrinthus, the "Labyrinth of the Night", is on the
western edge of Valles Marineris, the Grand Canyon of Mars. It was
first captured by Mars Express in June 2006.

Noctis Labyrinthus is a complex tectonic region intimately linked
to uplift of the nearby Tharsis volcanic region, home to the
biggest volcano in the Solar System, Olympus Mons.

As the Tharsis bulge swelled upwards, the planet's crust
stretched, resulting in parts of the surface fracturing along
parallel fault lines, producing sunken features known as graben.

Some of the graben in this scene are heavily eroded, with rocky
debris scattered at their bases. Younger formations are visible on
the upper surfaces, with fault lines crossing each other in
different directions, suggesting many episodes of tectonic
stretching.

This scene is a composite of around half a dozen images. Bill
selected the images he was interested in from HRSCview and
stitched them together, filling in a few small gaps in the data by
sampling the pixels immediately adjacent. He also brightened the
resulting picture.

If you make an expedition through the martian landscape using
HRSCview and create images like this, please share them with us
via email (scicom[_at_]esa.int) or Twitter (@esascience). Who knows
what treasures you may find?
Received on Mon 25 Mar 2013 03:52:35 PM PDT