Mysterious Material in Martian Depressions | NASA's Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter

Mysterious Material in Martian Depressions | NASA's Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter

This observation shows us enigmatic smooth material, usually occurring in depressions on Mars. It also seems to occur in strange, discrete blobs. The darker areas are colloquially referred to as “spiders” because of their shapes.

This image is located in Promethei Planum, near the South Pole of Mars. It is an an area seasonally covered with a more than 3,500 meters-thick layer of ice.

This is a non-narrated clip with ambient sound. Image is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 249 km (155 mi).

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is a spacecraft designed to study the geology and climate of Mars, to provide reconnaissance of future landing sites, and to relay data from surface missions back to Earth. It was launched on August 12, 2005, and reached Mars on March 10, 2006. 

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Duration: 2 minutes

Release Date: May 9, 2023

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Mars #Planet #RedPlanet #SouthPole #PrometheiPlanum #Depressions #UnidentifiedMaterial #Geology #Landscape #Terrain #MRO #HiRISE #Spacecraft #JPL #Caltech #California #UA #UniversityOfArizona #UnitedStates #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #STEM #Education #HD #Video