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Lakes On Mars
In summer 1965, the first close-up images from Mars showed a cratered desert with no signs of water. However, over the decades, as more parts of the planet were imaged with better cameras on more sophisticated satellites, Mars showed evidence of past river valleys, lakes and present ice in glaciers and in the ground. It was discovered that the climate of Mars displays huge changes over geologic time because its axis is not stabilized by a large moon, as Earth's is. Also, some researchers maintain that surface liquid water could have existed for periods of time due to geothermal effects, chemical composition or asteroid impacts. This article describes some of the places that could have held large lakes. Overview Besides seeing features that were signs of past surface water, researchers found other types of evidence for past water. Minerals detected in many locations needed water to form. An instrument in ''2001 Mars Odyssey'' orbiter mapped the distribution of water in the shal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lunae Palus Quadrangle
The Lunae Palus quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The quadrangle is also referred to as MC-10 (Mars Chart-10). Lunae Planum and parts of Xanthe Terra and Chryse Planitia are found in the Lunae Palus quadrangle. The Lunae Palus quadrangle contains many ancient river valleys. The quadrangle covers the area from 45° to 90° west longitude and 0° to 30° north latitude on Mars. The ''Viking 1'' Lander (part of Viking program) landed in the quadrangle on July 20, 1976, at . It was the first robot spacecraft to successfully land on the Red Planet. Results from ''Viking I'' mission What would it look like walking around the landing site The sky would be a light pink. The dirt would also appear pink. Rocks of many sizes would be spread about. One large rock, named Big Joe, is as big as a banquet table. Some boulders would show erosion due to the wind. There would be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mars Global Surveyor
''Mars Global Surveyor'' (MGS) was an American robotic space probe developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched November 1996. MGS was a global mapping mission that examined the entire planet, from the ionosphere down through the atmosphere to the surface. As part of the larger Mars Exploration Program, Mars Global Surveyor performed atmospheric monitoring for sister orbiters during aerobraking, and helped Mars rovers and lander missions by identifying potential landing sites and relaying surface telemetry. It completed its primary mission in January 2001 and was in its third extended mission phase when, on 2 November 2006, the spacecraft failed to respond to messages and commands. A faint signal was detected three days later which indicated that it had gone into safe mode. Attempts to recontact the spacecraft and resolve the problem failed, and NASA officially ended the mission in January 2007. MGS remains in a stable near-polar circular orbit at about 450 km ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Malin
Michael C. Malin (born 1950) is an American astronomer, space scientist, and CEO of Malin Space Science Systems. His cameras have been important scientific instruments in the exploration of Mars. Malin designed and ran the orbiting Mars camera (part of the larger Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft) which took over 212,000 high-resolution photos of Mars over a nine-year period. In late 2006, he and Kenneth Edgett announced photographic evidence which strongly suggested water was flowing on Mars in the present day. History A native of California, born in Los Angeles, Michael Malin earned a B.A. from U.C. Berkeley in Physics with a minor in English literature. He then attended Caltech, where he earned a Ph.D. in ''Planetary Sciences and Geology'' in 1975. After his doctorate, he worked for four years at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he was involved with the Viking 1 and Voyager missions. He taught geology at Arizona State University for 11 years before returning to Califo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martian Dichotomy
The most conspicuous feature of Mars is a sharp contrast, known as the Martian dichotomy, between the Southern and the Northern hemispheres. The two hemispheres' geography differ in elevation by 1 to 3 km. The average thickness of the Martian crust is 45 km, with 32 km in the northern lowlands region, and 58 km in the southern highlands. The boundary between the two regions is quite complex in places. One distinctive type of topography is called fretted terrain. It contains mesas, knobs, and flat-floored valleys having walls about a mile high. Around many of the mesas and knobs are lobate debris aprons that have been shown to be rock glaciers. Many large valleys formed by the lava erupted from the volcanoes of Mars cut through the dichotomy. The Martian dichotomy boundary includes the regions called Deuteronilus Mensae, Protonilus Mensae, and Nilosyrtis Mensae. All three regions have been studied extensively because they contain landforms believed to hav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deuteronilus Mensae
Deuteronilus Mensae is a region on Mars 937 km across and centered at . It covers 344°–325° West and 40°–48° North. Deuteronilus region lies just to the north of Arabia Terra and is included in the Ismenius Lacus quadrangle. It is along the dichotomy boundary, that is between the old, heavily cratered southern highlands and the low plains of the northern hemisphere. The region contains flat-topped knobby terrain that may have been formed by glaciers at some time in the past. Deuteronilus Mensae is to the immediate west of Protonilus Mensae and Ismeniae Fossae. Glaciers persist in the region in modern times, with at least one glacier estimated to have formed as recently as 100,000 to 10,000 years ago. Recent evidence from the radar on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has shown that parts of Deuteronilus Mensae do indeed contain ice. Source of ice It is now widely believed that ice accumulated in many areas of Mars, including Deuteronilus Mensae, when the planet's orbi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viking Program
The ''Viking'' program consisted of a pair of identical American space probes, ''Viking 1'' and ''Viking 2'', which landed on Mars in 1976. Each spacecraft was composed of two main parts: an orbiter designed to photograph the surface of Mars from orbit, and a lander designed to study the planet from the surface. The orbiters also served as communication relays for the landers once they touched down. The Viking program grew from NASA's earlier, even more ambitious, Voyager Mars program, which was not related to the successful Voyager deep space probes of the late 1970s. ''Viking 1'' was launched on August 20, 1975, and the second craft, ''Viking 2'', was launched on September 9, 1975, both riding atop Titan IIIE rockets with Centaur upper stages. ''Viking 1'' entered Mars orbit on June 19, 1976, with ''Viking 2'' following on August 7. After orbiting Mars for more than a month and returning images used for landing site selection, the orbiters and landers detached; the lander ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnetosphere
In astronomy and planetary science, a magnetosphere is a region of space surrounding an astronomical object in which charged particles are affected by that object's magnetic field. It is created by a celestial body with an active interior dynamo. In the space environment close to a planetary body, the magnetic field resembles a magnetic dipole. Farther out, field lines can be significantly distorted by the flow of electrically conducting plasma, as emitted from the Sun (i.e., the solar wind) or a nearby star. Planets having active magnetospheres, like the Earth, are capable of mitigating or blocking the effects of solar radiation or cosmic radiation, that also protects all living organisms from potentially detrimental and dangerous consequences. This is studied under the specialized scientific subjects of plasma physics, space physics and aeronomy. History Study of Earth's magnetosphere began in 1600, when William Gilbert discovered that the magnetic field on the surface ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vastitas Borealis
(Latin 'northern waste') is the largest lowland region of Mars. It is in the northerly latitudes of the planet and encircles the northern polar region. Vastitas Borealis is often simply referred to as the northern plains, northern lowlands or the North polar erg of Mars. The plains lie 4–5 km below the mean radius of the planet, and is centered at . A small part of Vastitas Borealis lies in the Ismenius Lacus quadrangle. The region was named by Eugene Antoniadi, who noted the distinct albedo feature of the Northern plains in his book ''La Planète Mars'' (1930). The name was officially adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1973. Although it is not an officially recognized feature, the North Polar Basin makes up most of the lowlands in the Northern Hemisphere of Mars. As a result, Vastitas Borealis lies within the North Polar Basin, while Utopia Planitia, another very large basin, is adjacent to it. Some scientists have speculated the plains were covered b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geology Of Mars
The geology of Mars is the scientific study of the surface, crust, and interior of the planet Mars. It emphasizes the composition, structure, history, and physical processes that shape the planet. It is analogous to the field of terrestrial geology. In planetary science, the term ''geology'' is used in its broadest sense to mean the study of the solid parts of planets and moons. The term incorporates aspects of geophysics, geochemistry, mineralogy, geodesy, and cartography. A neologism, areology, from the Greek word ''Arēs'' (Mars), sometimes appears as a synonym for Mars's geology in the popular media and works of science fiction (e.g. Kim Stanley Robinson, Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy). The term areology is also used by the Areological Society. Geological map of Mars (2014) File:Geologic Map of Mars figure2.pdf, Figure 2 for the geologic map of Mars Global Martian topography and large-scale features Composition of Mars Mars is a terrestrial planet, whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geography Of Mars
Areography, also known as the geography of Mars, is a subfield of planetary science that entails the delineation and characterization of regions on Mars. Areography is mainly focused on what is called physical geography on Earth; that is the distribution of physical features across Mars and their cartographic representations. History The first detailed observations of Mars were from ground-based telescopes. The history of these observations are marked by the oppositions of Mars, when the planet is closest to Earth and hence is most easily visible, which occur every couple of years. Even more notable are the perihelic oppositions of Mars which occur approximately every 16 years, and are distinguished because Mars is closest to earth and Jupiter perihelion making it even closer to Earth. In September 1877, (a perihelic opposition of Mars occurred on September 5), Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli published the first detailed map of Mars. These maps notably contained feat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_with_poles_HiRes.jpg "Click for more on -> Martian Dichotomy")
