#areology

[eka-mark]

MAVEN Maps Winds in the Martian Upper Atmosphere

By Tamsyn Brann

Researchers have created the first map of wind circulation in the upper atmosphere of a planet besides Earth, using data from NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft that were collected during the last two years. ... MAVEN, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission, recently celebrated the five-year anniversary of its entrance into orbit around Mars on September 21. The primary scientific goal of the mission is to study what is left of Mars’ atmosphere to determine how, in the distant past, an ocean-covered and potentially habitable Mars became the dry and desolate place it is today.

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This discovery was the first detection of topography-induced gravity wave ripples in the thermosphere of any planet, even Earth. ... This research was funded by the MAVEN mission. MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, and NASA Goddard manages the MAVEN project. NASA is exploring our Solar System and beyond, uncovering worlds, stars, and cosmic mysteries near and far with our powerful fleet of space and ground-based missions.

[exploremars]

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@npr #stardate talking about #areology & #morphology of #mars #martian surface features 😎

[nelc]

This dark mound, called "Ireson Hill," rises about 16 feet (5 meters) above redder layered outcrop material of the Murray formation on lower Mount Sharp, Mars, near a location where NASA's Curiosity rover examined a linear sand dune in February 2017.

Researchers used the rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam) on Feb. 2, 2017, during the 1,598th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars, to take the 41 images combined into this scene. The mosaic has been white-balanced so that the colors of the rock and sand materials resemble how they would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. The view extends from west-southwest on the left to north-northwest on the right. The faint horizon in the distance beyond Ireson Hill is part of the rim of Gale Crater. The rover's Sol 1598 location is mapped at https://mars.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/2017/curiositys-traverse-map-through-sol-1598 .

[earhartsease]

I ask once again: why is there no Mars rover called Areo Speedwagon

[themuaresearchcenter]

Pictured above is a vapor canyon known as “Sebesha.” 

The Vapor Canyons are a Mua-Exclusive feature of ancient planetary xenoformation. The canyons contain a dense, pressure-contained atmosphere and wild alien biosphere which few of the world's inhabitants have ever seen. The vapors, which are rather dense and mist-like, are toxic to most surface-dwelling creatures and therefor most of the flora and fauna in the vapor canyons are extremely segregated from surface life on Mua. Few creatures have adapted to survive in both the alien fog and the earth-like surface conditions of Mua. Due to the presence of many life forms of Parthian origin, the canyons are also hotspots for psionic and memetic anomalous activity. Countless people have reported falling through a rock formation on a rather treacherous hike only to find themselves falling back up out of a vapor canyon with skin and lung irritation to show for their strange journey through one of the many pocket dimensions that are said to lay in the crevices and crannies at the deepest parts of these unknown toxic biospheres. Similarly, some have reported gazing deeply into the foggy vapors of the canyons and spotting massive structures, blocky towers with countless shattered and cracked glass scales on every side, echoes and illusions derivative of an older time millions of years gone and countless lightyears away. Strange lights and sounds beyond those made by the many creatures in the mist ring out faintly on the winds from these deep, obscured places. Voices and the clattering low roar of entire cities of the damned and forgotten bounce out of the canyon walls at times, though many mark this up to the vapors effecting the mind and poisoning the body at a distance. Stranger more, many report unnatural lights flaring up in the fog, flashing outwards from the depths and sweeping along the walls. Many more believe that the canyons are gaping cracks between the living world and the afterlife where older times and memories thereof are immortalized as husks of themselves as they had been in actuality. Telepaths, as rare as they come and even rarer do they encounter these gaseous crevasses, often report feeling a connection to the greater forces of the universe when within vicinity of these formations.

[exploremars]

Featured here is Ladon Basin, a large impact structure -- formed when either asteroids or comets strike the surface of the planet at a shallow angle -- filled in by deposits from adjacent Ladon Valles, a once major river on Mars, revealed by wet sediments that altered into various clay minerals. The water is hypothesized to have been the result of ice which melted during the impact (or impacts). Why is this important? Because the indication of clays imply chemistry which may have been favorable to life on ancient Mars. If anything thrived here, this particular location could be a prime spot for future exploration by rovers -- not unlike the Mars 2020 rover mission -- as well as providing an intriguing spot to perform a follow-up sample return mission. Large elliptical craters have previously been identified in the basin. These craters are formed when asteroids or comets strike the surface of the planet at a shallow angle. Studies of the crater patterns suggest the area was probably covered in ice which melted during the impact. The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 52.1 centimeters (20.5 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 156 centimeters (61.4 inches) across are resolved.] North is up. This image of #Mars, courtesy of the @mars_orbiter , received and compiled by the @nasa @nasajpl which manages MRO, and the @uarizona , which operates the @uahirise camera instrument aboard the spacecraft, which achieved orbital insertion of Mars in March 2006. #geology #areology #planetaryscience

[eka-mark]

Frozen beneath a region of cracked and pitted plains on Mars lies about as much water as what's in Lake Superior, largest of the Great Lakes, researchers using NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have determined.

Mars Ice Deposit Holds as Much Water as Lake Superior - NASA/JPL (11-22-2016)

[eka-mark]

PSA: Don’t forget about Google Moon & Google Mars!