|
Uzboi Vallis
Uzboi Vallis is a valley lying situated within the Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle (MC-19) region on Mars. It is named after the Uzboy dry channel, now in Turkmenistan, which repeatedly served as the main channel of the Amu Darya river. The valley begins on the northern rim of the Argyre basin, and cuts through several craters, before ending at Holden crater. Mapbondcrater.jpg, Part of Uzboi Vallis along with nearby craters. Colors relate to elevation. Bond crater Uzboi Vallis 574A14.jpg, Bond crater (bottom), Uzboi Vallis, and Martynov crater (top) ( Viking Orbiter 1 image) Uzboi Vallis is believed to have been formed by running water. It is believed that layers were formed on the floor of Uzboi Vallis (as shown in the HiRISE image below) when drainage was blocked by the impact that formed Holden Crater to the north. Eventually the lake in the area of Uzboi Vallis went high enough to overtop the rim of Holden. The water then eroded the deposits to expose the layers as th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thermal Emission Imaging System
The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) is a camera on board the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter. It images Mars in the visible and infrared parts of the electromagnetic spectrum in order to determine the thermal properties of the surface and to refine the distribution of minerals on the surface of Mars as determined by the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES). Additionally, it helps scientists to understand how the mineralogy of Mars relates to its landforms, and it can be used to search for thermal hotspots in the Martian subsurface. THEMIS is managed from the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University and was built by the Santa Barbara Remote Sensing division of Raytheon Technologies Corporation, an American multinational conglomerate headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. The instrument is named after Themis, the goddess of justice in ancient Greek mythology. Infrared camera THEMIS detects thermal infrared energy emitted by the Martian surface at nine di ... [...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] |
Uzboi-Landon-Morava (ULM)
The Uzboi-Landon-Morava (ULM) outflow system is a long series of channels and depressions that may have carried water across a major part of Mars. It starts with channels that drain into the Argyre basin in the Argyre quadrangle. Water ponded in the Argyre basin, then the overflow is believed to have traveled northward through Uzboi Vallis, into Landon basin, through Morava Valles, to the floor of Margaritifer basin. Some of the water may have helped to carve Ares Vallis. Altogether, the total area drained for this watershed may have been about 11 X 106 km2 or about 9% of Mars.Phillips, R., et al. 2001. Ancient geodynamics and global-scale hydrology on Mars. Science: 291, 2587_2591. Pictures below show the Argyre basin which was once full of water. Also, the wider view shows the distance the water traveled, which was south of Argyre basin to Margaritifer Terra Margaritifer Terra () is an ancient, heavily cratered region of Mars. It is centered just south of the Marti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger oceans, they do form part of the Earth's water cycle. Lakes are distinct from lagoons, which are generally coastal parts of the ocean. Lakes are typically larger and deeper than ponds, which also lie on land, though there are no official or scientific definitions. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams, which usually flow in a channel on land. Most lakes are fed and drained by rivers and streams. Natural lakes are generally found in mountainous areas, rift zones, and areas with ongoing glaciation. Other lakes are found in endorheic basins or along the courses of mature rivers, where a river channel has widened into a basin. Some parts of the world have many lakes formed by the chaotic drainage patterns left over from the la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chryse Planitia
Chryse Planitia (Greek, "''Golden Plain''") is a smooth circular plain in the northern equatorial region of Mars close to the Tharsis region to the west, centered at . Chryse Planitia lies partially in the Lunae Palus quadrangle, partially in the Oxia Palus quadrangle, partially in the Mare Acidalium quadrangle. It is 1600 km or 994 mi in diameter and with a floor 2.5 km below the average planetary surface altitude, and has been suggested to be an ancient buried impact basin, though this is contested. It has several features in common with lunar maria, such as Wrinkle-ridge, wrinkle ridges. The density of impact craters in the range is close to half the average for lunar maria. Chryse Planitia shows evidence of water erosion in the past, and is the bottom end for many outflow channels from the southern highlands as well as from Valles Marineris and the flanks of the Tharsis bulge. It is one of the lowest regions on Mars ( below the mean surface elevation of Mars) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Outflow Channel
Outflow channels are extremely long, wide swathes of scoured ground on Mars. They extend many hundreds of kilometers in length and are typically greater than one kilometer in width. They are thought to have been carved by huge outburst floods. Crater counts indicate that most of the channels were cut since the early Hesperian, though the age of the features is variable between different regions of Mars. Some outflow channels in the Amazonis and Elysium Planitiae regions have yielded ages of only tens of million years, extremely young by the standards of Martian topographic features. The largest, Kasei Vallis, is around long, greater than wide and exceeds in depth cut into the surrounding plains. The outflow channels contrast with the Martian channel features known as " valley networks", which much more closely resemble the dendritic planform more typical of terrestrial river drainage basins. Outflow channels tend to be named after the names for Mars in various ancient world ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ares Vallis
Ares Vallis is an outflow channel on Mars, named after the Greek name for Mars: Ares, the god of war; it appears to have been carved by fluids, perhaps water. The valley 'flows' northwest out of the hilly Margaritifer Terra, where the Iani Chaos depression long and wide) is connected to the beginning of Ares Vallis by a wide transition zone centered on 342.5° East (17.5 West) and 3° North. It then continues through the ancient Xanthe Terra highlands, and ends in a delta-like region of Chryse Planitia. Ares Vallis was the landing site of NASA's ''Mars Pathfinder'' spacecraft, which studied a region of the valley near the border with Chryse in 1997. Ares Vallis is in the Oxia Palus quadrangle of Mars. It has been argued that Uzboi, Ladon, Margaritifer and Ares valles, although now separated by large craters, once comprised a single outflow channel, flowing north into Chryse Planitia. The source of this outflow has been suggested as overflow from the Argyre Crater, form ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ladon Valles
The Ladon Valles are a river valley system lying within the Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle (MC-19) region of the planet Mars located at 22.6° South and 28.7° West. They are 278 km long and were named after an ancient name for a Greek river. It has been argued that Uzboi, Ladon, Margaritifer and Ares valles, although now separated by large craters, once comprised a single outflow channel system flowing north into Chryse Planitia.Parker, T.J., Clifford, S.m., and Banerdt, W.B. (2000). Argyre Planitia and the Mars global hydrologic cycle. LPSC XXXI, Abstract 2033. The source of this outflow has been suggested as overflow from the Argyre crater, formerly filled to the brim as a lake by channels (Surius, Dzigai, and Palacopus valles) draining down from the south pole. If real, the full length of this drainage system would be over 8000 km, the longest known drainage path in the Solar System. Mapjones.jpg, Map showing locations of the Landon Valles and other nearby vall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nirgal Vallis
Nirgal Vallis is a long river channel bordering the Coprates quadrangle and Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle of Mars at 28.4° south latitude and 42° west longitude. It is 610 km long and is named after Nergal, the Babylonian god of war and counterpart to the Roman god of war Mars. Nirgal Vallis had a discharge of 4800 cubic meters/second. The western half of Nirgal Valles is a branched system, but the eastern half is a tightly sinuous, deeply entrenched valley. Nirgal Valles ends at Uzboi Vallis. Tributaries are very short and end in steep-walled valley heads, often called "amphitheater-headed valleys." The shape of these valley heads is like cirques on the Earth. Water from Nirgal Vallis contributed to a great flood that went through the rim of Holden Crater and helped form a lake in the crater. It's estimated that Nirgal Vallis had a discharge of 4800 cubic meters/second. Water from Nirgal Vallis was inbounded in Uzboi Vallis because the rim of Holden Crater b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HiRISE
High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is a camera on board the ''Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' which has been orbiting and studying Mars since 2006. The 65 kg (143 lb), US$40 million instrument was built under the direction of the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. It consists of a 0.5m (19.7 in) aperture reflecting telescope, the largest so far of any deep space mission, which allows it to take pictures of Mars with resolutions of 0.3m/pixel (1ft/pixel), resolving objects below a meter across. HiRISE has imaged Mars exploration rovers on the surface, including the ''Opportunity'' rover and the ongoing ''Curiosity'' mission. History In the late 1980s, of Ball Aerospace & Technologies began planning the kind of high-resolution imaging needed to support sample return and surface exploration of Mars. In early 2001 he teamed up with Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona to propose such a c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holden (Martian Crater)
Holden is a 140 km wide crater situated within the Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle (MC-19) region of the planet Mars, located with the southern highlands. It is named after American astronomer Edward Singleton Holden. It is part of the Uzboi-Landon-Morava (ULM) system. Description Like Gusev, it is notable for an outlet channel, Uzboi Vallis, that runs into it, and for many features that seem to have been created by flowing water. It's believed that Holden crater was formed by an impact during the Noachian or Hesperian periods.Grant, J. et al. 2008. HiRISE imaging of impact megabreccia and sub-meter aqueous strata in Holden Crater, Mars. Geology: 36, 195-198. The crater's rim is cut with gullies, and at the end of some gullies are fan-shaped deposits of material transported by water. The crater is of great interest to scientists because it has some of the best-exposed lake deposits. One of the layers has been found by the ''Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' to contain cla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vallis (planetary Geology)
''Vallis'' or ''valles'' (plural ''valles'' ) is the Latin word for ''valley''. It is used in planetary geology to name landform features on other planets. Scientists used ''vallis'' for old river valleys they discovered when they sent the first probes to Mars. The Viking Orbiters caused a revolution in our ideas about water on Mars; finding huge river valleys in many areas. Space craft cameras showed that floods of water broke through dams, carved deep valleys, eroded grooves into bedrock, and traveled thousands of kilometers. Some valles on Mars (Mangala Vallis, Athabasca Vallis, Granicus Vallis, and Tinjar Valles) clearly begin at graben. On the other hand, some of the large outflow channels begin in rubble-filled low areas, called chaos or chaotic terrain. It has been suggested that massive amounts of water were trapped under pressure beneath a thick cryosphere (layer of frozen ground), then the water was suddenly released, perhaps when the cryosphere was broken by a fault. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
