Scientists Process More Photos From Mars

AP on Yahoo ^ | 4/9/06 | AP - Los Angeles

[NormsRevenge]

LOS ANGELES - Scientists have processed more than a dozen new photos taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which arrived at the Red Planet last month, including its first color image.

The crisp test images released Friday revealed pocked craters, carved gullies and wind-formed dunes in Mars' southern hemisphere. The diverse geologic features show the importance of water, wind and meteor impacts in shaping the Martian surface, scientists said.

The orbiter, the most advanced spacecraft ever sent to another planet, reached Mars on March 10 and slipped into an elliptical orbit. Over the next six months, it will dip into the upper atmosphere to shrink its orbit, lowering itself to 158 miles above the surface.

Last month, the orbiter beamed back the first view of Mars from an altitude of 1,547 miles. Those first test images were meant to calibrate the high-resolution camera aboard the spacecraft. The latest images were taken at the same time, but scientists spent several weeks processing them.

The Reconnaissance Orbiter will begin collecting data in November, and scientists expect the resolution of those images to be nine times higher.

The $720 million mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

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On the Net:

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter: http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro

[NormsRevenge]

This is the first color image of Mars from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter provided by NASA Friday April 7, 2006. This is not natural color as seen by human eyes, but infrared color -- shifted to longer wavelengths. This image also has been processed to enhance subtle color variations. The southern half of the scene is brighter and bluer than the northern half, perhaps due to early-morning fog in the atmosphere according to NASA scientists. Large-scale streaks in the northern half are due to the action of wind on surface materials. This image was taken by HiRISE on March 24, 2006. The range to the target was 2,493 kilometers (1,549 miles). At this distance the image scale is 2.49 meters (8.17 feet) per pixel, so objects as small as 7.5 meters (24.6 feet) are resolved. (AP Photo/NASA-JPL)

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This perspective view generated from digital topography taken on March 24, 2006 and made available by NASA, provides an overview of the Mars terrain covered in this first color image of Mars from the high resolution imaging science experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The crisp test images reveals pocked craters, carved gullies and wind-formed dunes on Mars' southern hemisphere. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL)

[NormsRevenge]

A composite view of the tributary valley on planet Mars that feeds into Valles Marineris, the 'Grand Canyon of Mars', is a video image released by NASA March 13, 2006. (NASA/JPL/Handout/Reuters)

[FOG724]

bttt

[spinestein]

I saw the Grand Canyon a few years ago and it is the most spectacular thing I've ever seen.

I hope that within my lifetime there will be people standing on the rim of Mariner Valley. They'll be in for a treat.

[annie laurie]

Ping

[Geritol]

"This is not natural color as seen by human eyes, but infrared color -- shifted to longer wavelengths."

Visible light is shorter wavelengths (higher frequency) than infrared. To make it visible the shift would be to shorter, not longer. They either got it backwards, or are also talking about ultraviolet but left that part out. Hopefully they did better on the pictures than they did on the commentary.

If you pay any attention to the enterprisemission folks and others of like ilk we can not trust a pixel coming out of NASA. Seems like they can not release a photo without shifting the colors, filtering out details, rolling over or grinding up fascinating features and objects, or making some obscure change for sometimes unstated reasons.

Not that I believe them any more than NASA, but it does make one wonder.

[infidel29]

...and now for a moon-bat's eye view of Mars.

http://www.enterprisemission.com/LostCitiesofBarsoom.htm

The site is run by Richard C. Hoagland, "a propounder of theories on astronomical topics that are considered offbeat by many. His major focus is on extraterrestrial life in the solar system, in particular Mars. While Hoagland's books have sold very well, most in the scientific establishment consider his theories to be mere pseudoscience and not to be taken seriously."

Also a frequent guest on Coast to coast AM with George Noory.

Hoagland believes there are ruins of cities visible in some pictures from Mars.

[Lil'freeper]

Cool. So the Iranians are from Mars...

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Could be unknown geologic forces producing strange landscape. Or, we can send someone to Mars and solve this riddle. Until we do--and that could be in my lifetime--I'll remain agnostic on martian cities.