All hail the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

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Ah, some good science talk. The latest Mars orbiter has successfully entered orbit. It'll take a good chunk of the rest of the year for the orbit to come closer to Mars for maximum coverage, but when that happens, watch out...

Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 11 March 2006 02:18 (twenty years ago)

Premature enthusiasm is never out of place.

Aimless (Aimless), Saturday, 11 March 2006 02:20 (twenty years ago)

Hooray!

Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 11 March 2006 02:25 (twenty years ago)

seven years pass...

Looking at Jupiter from Mars

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/wp-content/gallery/space-photo-2013/jupiterfrommars.jpg

The HiRISE camera is the most powerful telescope to have left Earth orbit. As such, it is capable of some interesting astronomical observations. This image of Jupiter and its major satellites was acquired to calibrate the pointing and color response of the camera. An oversight in planning this unusual observation put the focus mechanism in the wrong location, blurring the image. This does not detract from the calibration objectives, but makes the raw image less aesthetic.

To compensate, the image has been "sharpened" on the ground by Dennis Gallagher, the HiRISE chief optical designer. With this sharpening, and because Mars is closer to Jupiter than Earth is, this image has comparable resolution as the Hubble Space Telescope's pictures of Jupiter. The colors are not what is seen by the human eye because HiRISE is able to detect light with a slightly longer wavelength than we can (that is, the infrared). While there is no standard observation geometry, this image was acquired on 11 January 2007, 2102 spacecraft event time to be precise.

Elvis Telecom, Monday, 2 December 2013 07:04 (twelve years ago)

By the way folks, if you aren't following http://beautifulmars.tumblr.com, you're missing out. Comparable to Astronomy Picture Of The Day.

GULLIES IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE

http://25.media.tumblr.com/5d0186fbdac8e3cae31363461cb54fc7/tumblr_mwsnf7EXT81rlz4gso1_1280.jpg

Elvis Telecom, Monday, 2 December 2013 07:36 (twelve years ago)

two months pass...

http://d1jqu7g1y74ds1.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/ESP_034285_1835-580x435.jpg

Brand New Impact Crater Shows Up on Mars

The great thing about the longevity of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is that we can see changes taking place on the Red Planet, such as this relatively new and rather large impact crater. This image shows a stunning 30-meter-wide crater with a rayed blast zone and far-flung secondary material surrounding. Scientists say the impact and resulting explosion threw debris as far as 15 kilometers in distance.

Before and after pictures of this region show the new impact crater formed between July 2010 and May 2012.

The image has been enhanced in false color and so the fresh crater appears blue because of the lack of reddish dust that covers most of Mars’ surface.

With MRO’s help, scientists have been able to estimate that Mars gets pummeled with about 200 impacts per year, but most are much smaller than this new one.

Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 6 February 2014 07:09 (twelve years ago)


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