Spring Thaw in Northwestern Planum Australe

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems · Download full size image

Planum Australe---the Plains of the South. Patchy frost lingers late into martian spring in this Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) wide angle view from November 25, 1999. Spring would give way to summer in only 1 month, on December 25, 1999. The surfaces underneath the frost have different properties---some get warmer while others stay cold---thus causing frost to linger on colder surfaces and sublime away from warmer surfaces, leaving the dazzling, almost psychadelic pattern seen at the center of this image. Circular features in this view are old craters formed by meteor impact. The brightest patches within most of these circles are fields of sand dunes covered by frost. The center of this scene is near 78°S, 135°W; north is toward the upper right. Illumination is from the upper left. The image covers an area 110 km (68 mi) across by 590 km (367 mi) down. This is a color composite of MOC wide angle camera images M09-06029 (red) and M09-06030 (blue). To see what the raw MOC image data look like, visit the newest data releases (for Mission Subphases M07 - M12, covering September 1999 through February 2000) in the MOC GALLERY at http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/. Posted on: 21 Oct, 2009

• Mariner 4 -- Mars
• Mariner 6 & 7 -- Mars
• Mariner 9 -- Mars
• Mariner 10 -- Mercury
• Viking to Mars
• Magellan to Venus
• Mars Pathfinder
• Deep Space 1
• Mars Climate Orbiter
• Mars Polar Lander
• Sputnik
• Explorer
• Vanguard
• Cassini/Huygens Mission
• Clementine Moon Mapping
• Galileo
• Genesis
• Giotto ESA
• Lunar Orbiter
• Lunar Prospector
• Mars Global Surveyor
• 2001 Mars Odyssey
• Mars 96 (Russian)
• NEAR
• Nozomi to Mars (JAPAN)
• Mars Phobos (Russian)
• Pioneer to Venus
• Pioneer 10
• Pioneer 11
• Ranger Lunar Mission
• Sakigake Comet Halley
• Suisei Comet Halley
• Surveyor Moon Mapping
• Ulysses
• Vega 1 (Russia)
• Vega 2 (Russia)
• Venera to Venus (Russian)
• Voyager
• Zond Soviet Lunar Missions
• Mars Exploration Rover - Spirit
• Mars Exploration Rover - Opportunity
• Mars Express
• Mars Rovers - Artwork
• Mars Rovers - Spacecraft
• Deep Impact
• Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
• Stardust
• Venus Express
• STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory)
• Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (HiRISE)
• New Horizons
• STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) 3-D Sun Images
• MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer)
• MESSENGER
• MODIS Image Of The Day Archive
• Phoenix Mars Lander
• Chandrayaan-1
• Kepler
• Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
• Cassini-Huygens (ESA)

Latest Thoughts

Share Your Thoughts

---

---

---