This close-up of Gullies at the edge of Hale Crater could be clues
to a watery past. These new Mars pics were snapped by the High
Resolution (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on
August 3. It’s one of several amazing new images from the Red Planet.
The Orbiter has been studying Mars since 2006, and the new shots below
add to a collection of over 1,500 taken by the HiRISE camera since
April.
Sand Dunes in Aonia Terra
Many of the dune fields in this region of Mars are banked up against
topographic obstacles such as crater rims. The location of the dunes
within impact craters gives an indication of the average regional
winds, while details such as slip-face orientations and superposed
ripples are controlled by the present day local winds.
Rough Terrain
Many large impact craters surround this image, but there are no
volcanoes nearby making it unlikely that the rough surface is from
fresh, blocky lava flows.
The high-resolution image shown here reveals a few fresh,
irregularly-shaped craters on top of this rough terrain. An irregular
crater, approximately 600 meters (2000 feet) in diameter, is visible
just right of center, about a third of the way up from the bottom of
the image. Its shape suggests that it formed from a body that impacted
the surface at a relatively low angle and slow speed. This makes it
likely that it is a secondary crater (a crater that forms from debris
blasted out of a nearby crater).
The University of Arizona and NASA
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