While Mars is called the Red Planet, a range of colors can be found on the worlds surface. Similar to in the world, the selection of colors we can see in images from Mars originates from the varied minerals on or simply under the surface area.
In the case of this image, subsurface minerals appear in gullies that have actually deteriorated down the side of a giant sand dune.
” Some of these gullies produce a range of colors that are highlighted on the west-facing (lit up) slopes, where the gullies seem glowing in the winter light,” describes the group from the incredible HiRISE camera, on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Disintegration in Kaiser Crater on Mars, as seen by the HiRISE video camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA/JPL/UArizona.
MRO has been orbiting Mars since 2006, and HiRISE has been snapping high-resolution images, showing the variety of Martian surface area. Kaiser Crater– and the field of huge dunes inside– has actually been a regular target of study for HiRISE (see all the images here), so scientists have actually come to acknowledge the seasonal modifications that happen at this ever-changing and moving landscape. The HiRISE groups states that the huge dune in Kaiser Crater experience gully erosion of the steep slip faces every year in late winter season as the sun warms these slopes and seasonal carbon dioxide frost sublimates (meaning it alters from a strong to gas).
Kaiser Crater is located in Noachis Terra, a location on Mars that lies in between the two giant effect basins on Mars: Argyre and Hellas. Noachis is so largely covered with effect craters that it is thought about among the oldest landforms on Mars (the term “Noachian” comes from the Earth name Noah, describing one of the earliest time periods.).
Another view of the active gullies in the dune of Kaiser Crater on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
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