The “Specters” of Mars
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
The “Specters” of Mars
ESP_050347_1130  Science Theme: Aeolian Processes
The jagged saw-tooth dichotomy, over a grainy texture, seen in this close-up image, reminds us of a scene from an old silent horror movie. Stark and unnerving, like that time between dusk and darkness, as the campfire burns out...was that something moving you saw through the canvas of your tent?

Malea Planum is a polar region in the Southern hemisphere of Mars, directly south of Hellas Basin, which contains the lowest point of elevation on the planet. The region contains ancient volcanoes of a certain type, referred to as “paterae.” Patera is the Latin word for a shallow drinking bowl, and was first applied to volcanic-looking features, with scalloped-edged calderas. Malea is also a low-lying plain, known to be covered in dust. These two pieces of information provide regional context that aid our understanding of the scene and features contained in our image. The area rises gradually to a ridge (which can be seen in this Context Camera image) and light-colored dust is blown away by gusts of the Martian wind, which accelerate up the slope to the ridge, leading to more sharp angles of contact between light and dark surface materials.

Of course, in keeping with age old stories of the supernatural powers of creatures of the night, Martian dust devils are able to move with impunity all the way up the slope. The tell-tale traces of their passage are visible as haphazard dark streaks crossing the area, like specters drifting through the night.

Shadowy. Haunting. Mars.



Written by: Jon Kissi, Livio L. Tornabene and Eric Pilles (audio: Tre Gibbs)  (13 July 2017)
 
Acquisition date
23 April 2017

Local Mars time
14:31

Latitude (centered)
-66.969°

Longitude (East)
43.788°

Spacecraft altitude
247.7 km (153.9 miles)

Original image scale range
49.6 cm/pixel (with 2 x 2 binning) so objects ~149 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
50 cm/pixel

Map projection
Polarstereographic

Emission angle
3.1°

Phase angle
71.4°

Solar incidence angle
70°, with the Sun about 20° above the horizon

Solar longitude
354.0°, Northern Winter

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  98°
Sub-solar azimuth:  57.0°
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
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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.