#syrtis major

[therealuniverse]

The Martian Shoreline and the Perseverance Rover This image is a hypothetical composite – it takes the surface of Mars mostly as known today and adds water up to a certain depth. There are very good reasons to believe there was once this much water on Mars for at least some time – putative shorelines have been identified from orbit based on their shape, chemical estimates based on isotopes of hydrogen suggest similar amounts of water were plausible, and many erosional features such as channels showing water flow directions. For today, I want you to focus on the triangular shape jutting north, into the ocean basin. 

That area is high ground and stands above the ocean because it’s dominated by a volcano named Syrtis Major. It’s one of the large volcanic constructs on Mars and it is found away from the larger Tharsis plateau on the opposite side of the planet, where large volcanoes like Olympus Mons are found.

See the half-circle shaped arc to the east of Syrtis Major? That is the Isidis basin, one of the last large craters to have formed on Mars. That area is flooded in this shot, creating a seashore between the ocean at the North and the Syrtis Major province. That seashore, as defined by a large delta and chemical evidence of carbonate minerals – that’s where the Perseverance Rover is targeted. That area is where we’re hoping we can find fossil evidence that life once existed on Mars. -JBB Image source: https://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/mars/ancient-mars-with-water.html Reference: http://redplanet.asu.edu/?tag=isidis-basin

[opticallyaddicted]

Title Nili Fossae

Released 22/01/2015 11:30 am

Copyright ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Description

The Nili Fossae graben system, part of which is shown in this image, is an area of great geological interest near the giant Isidis impact basin, northeast of the Syrtis Major volcanic province.

The graben system contains numerous troughs, one of which can be seen crossing the lower left of this image. On the plateau above, several depressions can be seen, some of them extending into the trough. A large, 55 km-diameter impact crater with a central pit can be seen on the right.

This image was acquired by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express on 16 October 2014 during orbit 13699. It is centred on 75°E / 24°N. The ground resolution is about 18 m per pixel.  North is to the right, west is up.

Thanks astronomicalwonders:

[retrofutureground]

Edward Emerson Barnard, Mars, photographed with the Yerkes Observatory 40-inch refractor telescope, 29-09-1909.

Above: Syrtis Major region, September 29, 3: 45 (UT); Below: Same; 4: 25 (UT). Each exposure is the superposition of three to five original frames. This reduces grain and brings out fine halftones.

[wigmund]

From National Geographic:

Volcanic Plains Image courtesy G. Neukum, F.U. Berlin/DLR/ESA

A new picture from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter shows windswept craters in Syrtis Major, a large volcanic plain near the red planet's equator.

From Earth, the roughly 800-by-930-mile (1,300-by-1,500-kilometer) plain is easily identified through backyard telescopes as a distinct dark spot. In the 1600s Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens used changes in the position of Syrtis Major as Mars rotated to estimate the length of a Martian day.

Now, this and other color-enhanced closeups are allowing astronomers to study the region's features, such as mesas, lava-filled craters, and sickle-shaped dunes.