On the Floor of the Labyrinth of the Night
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
On the Floor of the Labyrinth of the Night
PSP_006969_1725  Science Theme: Composition and Photometry
This image shows part of Noctis Labyrinthus, the “Labyrinth of the Night.” This is a system of connecting troughs which form a maze-like network at the western end of Valles Marineris, the giant canyon system of Mars.

The individual troughs are usually kilometers across; this image shows part of the floor of one of the troughs, with some intriguing fine-scale features.

Near the center of the image, the floor is broken up into many small knobs and hills, probably eroded remnants of a larger geologic unit. The most striking feature of many of these knobs is a thin, bright band which often wraps around the edges near the bottom. This image was acquired in order to investigate whether this is an exposed layer of rock or the shoreline of a former body of water.

HiRISE resolves details of the bright band that indicate that this is an unusual layer of rock, rather than an old shoreline. In several places, the band is broken up along cracks, sometimes forming boulders. This indicates that the band is solid rock, while material left on a shoreline should be loose sediments. It is now exposed as rings and arcs where erosion has cut deeply enough to expose the layer.

This band must indicate some unusual event in the geologic history of the region when a different type of rock was deposited; it is strikingly different in color from the other rocks. Although it is not a shoreline, it could be material that was deposited on the floor of a much older lake or sea and then buried by other rock; it could also have been laid down by other sedimentary processes or as volcanic ash.



Written by: Colin Dundas  (27 February 2008)

This is a stereo pair with ESP_028093_1725.
 
Acquisition date
21 January 2008

Local Mars time
14:37

Latitude (centered)
-7.382°

Longitude (East)
263.967°

Spacecraft altitude
258.7 km (160.8 miles)

Original image scale range
26.3 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~79 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
5.5°

Phase angle
47.3°

Solar incidence angle
42°, with the Sun about 48° above the horizon

Solar longitude
20.7°, Northern Spring

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  97°
Sub-solar azimuth:  27.2°
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   (1306MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (625MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
Black and white
map-projected  (682MB)
non-map           (676MB)

IRB color
map projected  (236MB)
non-map           (624MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (286MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (295MB)

RGB color
non map           (582MB)
ANAGLYPHS
Map-projected, reduced-resolution
Full resolution JP2 download
Anaglyph details page

BONUS
4K (TIFF)
8K (TIFF)
HiClip mini 4K (MP4)

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.