Noachis Terra
Noachis Terra (; lit. "Land of Noah") is an extensive southern landmass (''terra'') of the planet Mars. It lies west of the giant Hellas impact basin, roughly between the latitudes −20° and −80° and longitudes 30° west and 30° east, centered on . It is in the Noachis quadrangle. The term "Noachian epoch" is derived from this region. Gallery Dunes of Mars.jpg, A crater in Noachis Terra. The dunes here are linear, thought to be due to shifting wind directions. Image:Exhumed crater in Noachis.JPG, Crater that was buried in another age and is now being exposed by erosion, as seen by the Mars Global Surveyor, under the MOC Public Targeting Program. Image:24396floor.jpg, Floor of crater in Noachis quadrangle, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program. ESP 035632 1490noachiscraterfloor.jpg, Erosion forms on floor of crater, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program WikidarkdunesS0101212context.jpg, Context for image of dark dunes in next image. Picture taken with Mars Globa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Wind
Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few hours, to global winds resulting from the difference in absorption of solar energy between the climate zones on Earth. The two main causes of large-scale atmospheric circulation are the differential heating between the equator and the poles, and the rotation of the planet ( Coriolis effect). Within the tropics and subtropics, thermal low circulations over terrain and high plateaus can drive monsoon circulations. In coastal areas the sea breeze/land breeze cycle can define local winds; in areas that have variable terrain, mountain and valley breezes can prevail. Winds are commonly classified by their spatial scale, their speed and direction, the forces that cause them, the regions in which they occur, and their effect. Winds have va ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Russell (Martian Crater)
Russell is a crater on Mars, located in the Noachis quadrangle at 54.9° south latitude and 347.6° west longitude. It measures approximately 135 kilometers in diameter and was named after American astronomer Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957). Description Debris flows have been observed on some of the dunes in this crater. Some researchers believe that they may be caused by liquid water. Liquid water could be stable for short periods of time in the summer in the southern hemisphere of Mars. These gully-like debris flows may be due to small amounts of ice melting. Another idea is that chunks of dry ice form on the dunes during the cold winter, then slide down in the spring when it is warmer. Experiments have demonstrated that carbon dioxide from the thawing dry ice forms a lubricating layer under pieces of dry ice, making it easy for the process to take place. Image:Noachis Map.JPG, Quadrangle map of Noachis labeled with major features. Russell Crater is near the bottom left ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Arkhangelsky Crater
Arkhangelsky (masculine), Arkhangelskaya (feminine), or Arkhangelskoye (neuter) may refer to: People *Arkhangelsky (surname) Places *Arkhangelsky District, a district in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia *Arkhangelsky (rural locality) (''Arkhangelskaya'', ''Arkhangelskoye''), name of several rural localities in Russia * Arkhangelsk Oblast (''Arkhangelskaya oblast''), a federal subject of Russia Other uses *Arkhangelskoye Palace, a historical estate near Moscow, Russia *Arkhangelski, a Soviet military design bureau led by Alexander Arkhangelsky *Arkhangelsky Ar-2 The Arkhangelsky Ar-2 was a Soviet dive-bomber used in small numbers during World War II. Its design was a refinement of the earlier Russian Tupolev SB. The design bureau's name (Cyrillic: Архангельский) is transliterated in man ..., a bomber designed by this design bureau * Arkhangelsky (crater), a crater on Mars named after him {{disambiguation, geo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of all volcanic rock on Earth is basalt. Rapid-cooling, fine-grained basalt is chemically equivalent to slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro. The eruption of basalt lava is observed by geologists at about 20 volcanoes per year. Basalt is also an important rock type on other planetary bodies in the Solar System. For example, the bulk of the plains of Venus, which cover ~80% of the surface, are basaltic; the lunar maria are plains of flood-basaltic lava flows; and basalt is a common rock on the surface of Mars. Molten basalt lava has a low viscosity due to its relatively low silica content (between 45% and 52%), resulting in rapidly moving lava flows that can spread over great areas before cooling and solidifying. Flood basalts are thick sequence ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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HiWish Program
HiWish is a program created by NASA so that anyone can suggest a place for the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to photograph. It was started in January 2010. In the first few months of the program 3000 people signed up to use HiRISE. The first images were released in April 2010. Over 12,000 suggestions were made by the public; suggestions were made for targets in each of the 30 quadrangles of Mars. Selected images released were used for three talks at the 16th Annual International Mars Society Convention. Below are some of the over 4,224 images that have been released from the HiWish program as of March 2016. Glacial features Some landscapes look just like glaciers moving out of mountain valleys on Earth. Some have a hollowed-out appearance, looking like a glacier after almost all the ice has disappeared. What is left are the moraines—the dirt and debris carried by the glacier. The center is hollowed out because the ice is mostly gone. These supposed alp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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MOC Public Targeting Program
The MOC Public Targeting Program was a very popular program that followed the Mars Global Surveyor's pictures of Mars. A total of 4,636 requests came in from the general public. Of these, 1,086 were photographed by the Mars Observer Camera. Many of the requests eventually resulted in publications. A little more than half of the requests came from a single member of the general public. One of the people wrote in the Planetary Report that working with MGS was as exciting as being a football fan able to run a few plays in the Super Bowl.Secosky. J. 2007. "Public involvement." The Planetary Report: 27.19 Images from the Public Target program can be found at http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/ Examples of pictures taken through Public Target program Image:Layers in a crater in Arabia.JPG, Pedestal craters and layers in Tikonravev Crater in Arabia, as seen by Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) with the Mars Orbiter Camera, under the MOC Public Targeting Program. Layers may form from vo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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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 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dune
A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat regions covered with wind-swept sand or dunes with little or no vegetation are called ''Erg (landform), ergs'' or ''sand seas''. Dunes occur in different shapes and sizes, but most kinds of dunes are longer on the wiktionary:stoss, stoss (upflow) side, where the sand is pushed up the dune, and have a shorter ''slip face'' in the lee side. The valley or trough between dunes is called a ''dune slack''. Dunes are most common in desert environments, where the lack of moisture hinders the growth of vegetation that would otherwise interfere with the development of dunes. However, sand deposits are not restricted to deserts, and dunes are also found along sea shores, along streams in semiarid climates, in areas of glacial outwash, and in othe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Noachian Epoch
The Noachian is a geologic system and early time period on the planet Mars characterized by high rates of meteorite and asteroid impacts and the possible presence of abundant surface water. The absolute age of the Noachian period is uncertain but probably corresponds to the lunar Pre-Nectarian to Early Imbrian periods of 4100 to 3700 million years ago, during the interval known as the Late Heavy Bombardment. Many of the large impact basins on the Moon and Mars formed at this time. The Noachian Period is roughly equivalent to the Earth's Hadean and early Archean eons when the first life forms likely arose. Noachian-aged terrains on Mars are prime spacecraft landing sites to search for fossil evidence of life. During the Noachian, the atmosphere of Mars was denser than it is today, and the climate possibly warm enough to allow rainfall. Large lakes and rivers were present in the southern hemisphere, and an ocean may have covered the low-lying northern plains. Extensive ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |