Posted on 03/22/2014 5:29:09 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Deep shadows create dramatic contrasts between light and dark in this high-resolution close-up of the martian surface. Recorded on January 24 by the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the scene spans about 1.5 kilometers across a sand dune field in a southern highlands crater. Captured when the Sun was just 5 degrees above the local horizon, only the dune crests are caught in full sunlight. With the long, cold winter approaching the red planet's southern hemisphere, bright ridges of seasonal frost line the martian dunes.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA]
I’d love to be a photographer on mars.
There’s some serious beauty in desolation.
I’ve driven across the country before, we’ve got plenty of desolation of our own. :’)
I prefer the untouched desolation but standing out in a martian dawn to photograph the sunrise would be a SOB.
And it needs a nice candy shell coating because it looks like someone left fingerprints all over the place.
I think I see a man’s face.
we’ve got plenty of desolation of our own
Either one is enough to frost your ..lls.
For some reason, that 60’s flick “Fantastic Voyage” came to mind ...
Dress warm when you go.
About like I did all winter.
But there’s no women there.
You’ll have to hold your breath at the same time.
That is a really spectacular picture, Mr. Civilizations.
When we moved from California to Ohio, I drove my car through the Bonneville Salt Flats on a sunny day.
I nearly went blind.
Salt blind: Just as bad as snow blind.
I don’t doubt it — dry climate there, and few clouds, bright sun, definitely want some RayBans.
I need sunglasses more in the winter on some days, those rare instances when that gunmetal overcast blows off and the Sun is actually visible. :’) That wasn’t such a big problem this winter. And now, the tundra, er, dormant landscape has begun to emerge bigtime as the snow has been melting off. There was no sudden melting as I had predicted, which makes me concerned about how warm the summer will be.
That must be why Elton John didn’t want to go, oh, wait...
We’re seeing 40°s during the day, but it’s still getting down into the low 20°s at night. It is
already sidereal “Spring,” and we expected warming, but we’re not getting it at night.
The bugs, birds, and small animals are stirring from their Winter’s naps, and it’s not the
temperatures that bring them out, but the light. It’s lighter, so out they come.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t work out well for the bugs, for they freeze to death at night.
Here’s hoping that Summer will be close to Summer temperatures, otherwise we may
be in for chilly beach weather this year, and possibly for years to come.
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