Night and Day in Melas Chasma on Mars

Discussion in 'Astronomy, Exobiology, & Cosmology' started by wet1, Dec 17, 2002.

  1. wet1 Wanderer Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    8,616

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    Night and Day in Melas Chasma on Mars
    Credit: Arizona State U., JPL, NASA

    What types of terrain are found on Mars? Part of the answer comes from thermal imaging by the robot spacecraft 2001 Mars Odyssey currently orbiting Mars. The above picture is a superposition of two infrared images, a black and white image taken during Martian daylight and a false-color image taken at night. For the daytime image, dark colors mean cool temperatures, dropping from about -5 degrees Celsius to low as -35 degrees Celsius. Shadowed regions appear particularly dark, while grooved structure on the floor of Melas Chasma indicates successively overlapping landslides. In the nighttime swath, blue areas have cooled relatively quickly, indicating a composition of fine-grained dust and sand.
     

Share This Page