Purple Mountain’s Majesty
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Purple Mountain’s Majesty
ESP_041088_1535  Science Theme: Geologic Contacts/Stratigraphy
This image of an isolated mountain in the Southern highlands reveals a large exposure of “purplish” bedrock.

Since HiRISE color is shifted to longer wavelengths than visible color and given relative stretches, this really means that the bedrock is roughly dark in the broad red bandpass image compared to the blue-green and near-infrared bandpass images.

In the RGB (red-green-blue) color image, which excludes the near-infrared bandpass image, the bedrock appears bluish in color. This small mountain is located near the northeastern rim of the giant Hellas impact basin, and could be impact ejecta.

Written by: Alfred McEwen (narration: Tre Gibbs)  (15 July 2015)
 
Acquisition date
03 May 2015

Local Mars time
14:20

Latitude (centered)
-26.305°

Longitude (East)
100.366°

Spacecraft altitude
253.5 km (157.5 miles)

Original image scale range
50.7 cm/pixel (with 2 x 2 binning) so objects ~152 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
50 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
0.2°

Phase angle
37.1°

Solar incidence angle
37°, with the Sun about 53° above the horizon

Solar longitude
335.9°, Northern Winter

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  97°
Sub-solar azimuth:  25.6°
JPEG
Black and white
map projected  non-map

IRB color
map projected  non-map

Merged IRB
map projected

Merged RGB
map projected

RGB color
non-map projected

JP2
Black and white
map-projected   (177MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (98MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
Black and white
map-projected  (90MB)
non-map           (103MB)

IRB color
map projected  (31MB)
non-map           (86MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (166MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (161MB)

RGB color
non map           (86MB)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
B&W label
Color label
Merged IRB label
Merged RGB label
EDR products
HiView

NB
IRB: infrared-red-blue
RGB: red-green-blue
About color products (PDF)

Black & white is 5 km across; enhanced color about 1 km
For scale, use JPEG/JP2 black & white map-projected images

USAGE POLICY
All of the images produced by HiRISE and accessible on this site are within the public domain: there are no restrictions on their usage by anyone in the public, including news or science organizations. We do ask for a credit line where possible:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

POSTSCRIPT
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.