Planet Mars: Exploring Aram Chaos | NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Planet Mars: Exploring Aram Chaos | NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Aram Chaos is an eroded impact crater on Mars, about 280 kilometers in diameter. The floor of Aram Chaos also contains huge blocks of collapsed (chaotic) terrain that formed when water or ice was catastrophically removed. The crater was also filled in with sediments over time. This observation was acquired to fill in High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) coverage where Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) data already exists. CRISM is another instrument onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. 

The saying Λάθε βιώσας (“live hidden”) is attributed to Epicurus. Aram Chaos would be a good place to hide. (We used Modern Greek pronunciation to render the transliteration in the title card as “láthe viósas.”)

This is a non-narrated clip with ambient sound. Enhanced color image is less than 1 km (under a mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 272 km (169 mi). For full images including scale bars, visit the source link.

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. 

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the HiRISE instrument, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

“For 17 years, MRO has been revealing Mars to us as no one had seen it before,” said the mission’s project scientist, Rich Zurek of JPL.

Video Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

Duration: 2 minutes, 45 seconds

Release Date: Nov. 14, 2023 

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