How about some basic physics? It’ll be easy, I promise. Just look at the pretty picture below (click on it to see it better): (HiRISE ESP_045586_1585, NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona) The big crater is ~400 m (1/4 mile) across. Wind blows sediment from the top to the bottom of the view, making some dune-like features (TARs,
Last May, a diverse group of astronomers, space agency executives, government representatives, and theorists who study tsunamis and asteroid impacts met for a week in Tokyo to discuss the state of planetary defense. This group also included a few members of the NASA’s Frontier Development Lab (FDL), an applied research accelerator, aims to foster collaboration between AI experts and planetary researchers expressly for the purpose of finding solutions to NASA global challenges, including Planetary Defense.
Baby dunes on Mars are pretty big compared to those on Earth. In this 885×512 m (0.55×0.32 mi) frame, there are four dunes of roughly the same size, all of which are about as small as dunes can get on Mars. They’re ~180 m (590 ft) across, several times bigger than similar “elementary” dunes on
There’s so much going on in this 0.75×0.75 km (0.47×0.47 mi) image. You’re looking at a broad dune migrating toward the upper right. It’s early summer, but this is close enough to the north pole that some winter ice lingers (pale blueish white), amid slumps that have shed down from the dune. The slumps probably
Many dunes on Mars are actively migrating, like these dunes (view is 0.4×0.5 km, 0.25×0.31 mi). These are found deep in Ius Chasma, one of the Valles Marineris. These dunes slowly migrate toward the right, pushed by winds blowing from the lower and upper left. Comparing this recent image with the first HiRISE image taken
This is the upwind edge of a dune field (825×625 m, 0.51×0.39 mi). Winds blow down a cliff (offscreen) from the lower right, blowing sand toward the upper left. Elongated dunes have formed parallel to the resultant wind direction, only avalanching into slip faces once enough sand has piled up (there are two slip faces
The busy, busy wind has moved a lot of things to make this 0.6×0.85 km (0.37×0.53 mi) landscape. First it built a big dark dune, covering it and the surrounding surface with ripples. Then it dumped a bunch of bright yellow dust all over everything, maybe the result of a nearby dust storm, or maybe
I set my alarm for 5:30 this morning. Sometimes I skip lunar eclipses, but I do try to see them if they’re total, and if I think the sky might be cloud-free (which it often isn’t in the Bay Area of CA, as low-lying marine clouds typically roll in overnight). My 8 year old is
A Piece of Mars: The dark splash pattern in this 0.9×0.9 km (0.56×0.56 mi) scene (click on it for a better view) is the site of an impact crater that appeared between images sometime between August 2006 and March 2010 (Smash!). The main crater is ~7 m (23 ft) across. Impacts smash a little ways
In November 2014 we set out to observe 600 young, nearby stars with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) and the Gemini South telescope. Three years later, the survey has achieved a milestone with more than 400 targets observed. Each frame in this movie shows an image from GPI. The star itself is partially blocked by
