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Storm Chaser on Mars

March 20, 2012

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Catches a Twister in Action.

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By analyzing radar images like the one at top of this montage, scientists discovered evidence for a past ice age in the northern polar ice cap of Mars.
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By analyzing radar images like the one at top of this montage, scientists discovered evidence for a past ice age in the northern polar ice cap of Mars.
Signs of a Martian Ice Age
How before-and-after pictures led to the discovery of a fresh meteor impact crater on Mars.
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Mars Weathercam Helps Find Big, New Crater
Mars Weathercam Helps Find Big, New Crater
These long, smooth features are sand ridges shaped by the constant martian wind. They run perpendicular, or at right angles to, the direction of the wind and often found in channels and crater inte...
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These long, smooth features are sand ridges shaped by the constant martian wind.
MRO Spots Sand Stripes
The enhanced-color subimage shows a great variety of colors and textures in the bedrock, where it is exposed from beneath a dark fine-grained mantle. The mantle is sometimes modified by the wind in...
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The enhanced-color subimage shows a great variety of colors and textures in the bedrock
Uplifted Jumble of Ancient Bedrock (3-D)
Artist concept of glacier on Mars.
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Artist concept of glacier on Mars.
Artist concept of Glaciers on Mars
As the Sun peeks above the horizon at the Martian south polar icecap, powerful jets of carbon-dioxide (CO2) gas erupt through the icecap's topmost layer.
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As the Sun peeks above the horizon at the Martian south polar icecap, powerful jets of carbon-dioxide (CO2) gas erupt through the icecap's topmost layer.
Dry Ice Spiders on Mars
Why does HiRISE take so many repeat images of the same area? Repeat coverage actually serves a special purpose, such as detecting seasonal changes (frost deposition and sublimation) and temporal ch...
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This image shows frost on a crater slope. The white frost covers nearly the top side of the crater, while the bottom part appears reddish in color.
Frost on Crater Slope
This image, acquired on January 2, 2014, by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows dune fields located among canyon wall slopes.
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This image, acquired on January 2, 2014, by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows dune fields located among canyon wall slopes.
Hanging Sand Dunes within Coprates Chasma
Martian gullies as seen in the top image from HiRISE on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter resemble gullies on Earth that are carved by liquid water. However, when they are observed with the additi...
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Composition Data About Mars Gullies
Adding Composition Data About Mars Gullies
This chain of collapse pits located on the southeast flank of Alba Patera, a volcanic complex, probably formed when empty underground lava tubes collapsed.
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This chain of collapse pits located on the southeast flank of Alba Patera, a volcanic complex, probably formed when empty underground lava tubes collapsed.
Phlegethon Catena (3-D)
This artist's concept shows NASA's Mars orbiters lining up behind the Red Planet for their "duck and cover" maneuver to shield them fro comet dust that may result from the close flyby of comet Sidi...
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This artist's concept shows NASA's Mars orbiters lining up behind the Red Planet for their "duck and cover" maneuver to shield them fro comet dust that may result from the close flyby of comet Siding Spring (C/2013 A1) on Oct. 19, 2014.
Siding Spring Mars Spacecraft
This kickoff of a new Mars video series covers Opportunity's 14th anniversary on the Red Planet, Curiosity's spectacular panorama and ice deposits spotted by an orbiter.
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This kickoff of a new Mars video series covers Opportunity's 14th anniversary on the Red Planet, Curiosity's spectacular panorama and ice deposits spotted by an orbiter.
Mars Report: January 2018
This animation shows NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter flying over NASA's Curiosity (shown in pink) as the rover lands on the Red Planet. The video is slowed down as the orbiter approaches the lan...
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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Flying Over Mars
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Flying Over Mars
Three pairs of before and after images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter illustrate movement of ripples on dark sand dunes in...
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Changes in Ripples on Martian Dunes in Nili Patera
Changes in Ripples on Martian Dunes in Nili Patera
Observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have detected carbon-dioxide snow clouds on Mars and evidence of carbon-dioxide snow falling to the surface.
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Observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have detected carbon-dioxide snow clouds on Mars and evidence of carbon-dioxide snow falling to the surface.
Carbon-Dioxide Snowfall on Mars
This diagram illustrates an interpretation for the origin of some deposits in the Eridania basin of southern Mars as resulting from seafloor hydrothermal activity more than 3 billion years ago.
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A Geologic Model for Eridania Basin on Ancient Mars
A Geologic Model for Eridania Basin on Ancient Mars
NASA's Opportunity rover appears as a blip in the center of this square. This image taken by HiRISE, a high-resolution camera onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows the dust storm over P...
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NASA's Opportunity rover appears as a blip in this image, which was taken by HiRISE, a high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Opportunity After the Dust Storm
This HiRISE image covers the southwest portion of the terraces and floor of Holden Crater situated in southwest Margaritifer Terra.
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This HiRISE image covers the southwest portion of the terraces and floor of Holden Crater situated in southwest Margaritifer Terra. The HiRISE sub-frame shows the most clearly-evident image of a megabreccia on Mars. Breccia is a rock typically consisting of rock fragments of various sizes and shapes that have been broken, tumbled and cemented together in sudden geologic event (e.g., a landslide, a flashflood or even an impact-cratering event). If it were not for the dark sandy dunes dispersed through out the sub-image, this image could easily fool an expert into thinking that this image is actually a photograph of a hand sample of an impact breccia. The prefix "mega" implies that the breccia in the sub-image consists of clasts, or rock fragments, that are typically larger than a large house or a building. The rectangular megaclast near the center of the image is a colossal 50 x 25 meters (~150 X 75 feet). As mentioned in the transition image caption for Holden crater (TRA_000861_1530), the crater likely experienced extensive modification by running water, which is supported by observations of drainage and deposition into the crater from a large channel (Uzboi Valles) breaching Holden's southwest rim. While it is possible that the megabreccia formed from a catastrophic release of water into the crater, a more likely possibility is that it formed from the impact that created the approx. 150 km-in-diameter Holden crater. Popigai Crater, a terrestrial crater of half the size of Holden, possesses a similar occurrence of megabreccia with a similar range in megaclast size to the Holden crater example. An impact-generated megabreccia deposit, as observed in terrestrial craters, typically lies beneath the crater floor, so the exhumation of the megabreccia may be the result of down-cutting and erosion of water that once flowed through Uzboi Valles.
Holden Crater Megabreccia: A Telltale Sign of a Sudden and Violent Event
Three images of the same location taken at different times on Mars show seasonal activity causing sand avalanches and ripple changes on a Martian dune.
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Three images of the same location taken at different times on Mars show seasonal activity causing sand avalanches and ripple changes on a Martian dune.
Seasonal Changes in Northern Mars Dune Field
This image acquired on September 18, 2018 by NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows araneiform terrain (colloquially: spider-like terrain) located in the south polar region of Mars.
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The Enduring Charm of Martian Spiders
The Enduring Charm of Martian Spiders
These images show a 256 x 256 pixel patch of sky at the range to the comet of 8 million miles and when the solar phase angle is 47 degrees.
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These images show a 256 x 256 pixel patch of sky at the range to the comet of 8 million miles and when the solar phase angle is 47 degrees.
First HiRISE Images of Comet ISON
Mawrth Vallis has a rich mineral diversity, including clay minerals that formed by the chemical alteration of rocks or loose “regolith” (soil) by water.
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Mawrth Vallis has a rich mineral diversity, including clay minerals that formed by the chemical alteration of rocks or loose "regolith" (soil) by water.
Proposed MSL Landing Site in Mawrth Vallis Region
This map shows the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from the "Bradbury Landing" location where it landed in August 2012 (the start of the line in upper right) to a major waypoint called ...
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This map shows the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from the "Bradbury Landing" location where it landed in August 2012 (the start of the line in upper right) to a major waypoint called "the Kimberley."
Curiosity Mars Rover's Route from Landing to 'The Kimberley' Waypoint
This image covers a region of Mars near Nili Fossae that contains some of the best exposures of ancient bedrock on Mars.
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This image covers a region of Mars near Nili Fossae that contains some of the best exposures of ancient bedrock on Mars.
A Wild Assortment of Jumbled Rocks
This area at the base of Mount Sharp on Mars includes a pale outcrop, called "Pahrump Hills," that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover investigated from September 2014 to March 2015, and the "Artist's Driv...
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This area at the base of Mount Sharp on Mars includes a pale outcrop, called "Pahrump Hills," that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover investigated from September 2014 to March 2015, and the "Artist's Drive" route toward higher layers of the mountain.
Curiosity Heading Away from 'Pahrump Hills'

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