Martian Landscapes (IMAGES)

**Dense** · 2009-11-09 05:53

I feel this deserves its own thread.

Since 2006, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has been orbiting Mars, currently circling approximately 300 km (187 mi) above the Martian surface. On board the MRO is HiRISE, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera, which has been photographing the planet for several years now at resolutions as fine as mere inches per pixel. Collected here is a group of images from HiRISE over the past few years, in either false color or grayscale, showing intricate details of landscapes both familiar and alien, from the surface of our neighboring planet, Mars. I invite you to take your time looking through these, imagining the settings - very cold, dry and distant, yet real.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/11/martian_landscapes. html

Spoilered for large and numerous photos (but well worth looking at!)...

Spoiler: show

***Blarg*** · 2009-11-09 06:00

Probably going to make a few of these wallpapers

**Takedown3** · 2009-11-09 07:55

some of those a pretty mindfuckish, must be some pretty intense wind up there to make those patterns

pretty cool anyway, can't wait till we get some people up there

**Fhqwghads** · 2009-11-09 08:56

Breathtaking. (And I don't mean its atmosphere.)

**kuronosan** · 2009-11-09 09:17

Wow, those have to be some pretty weird fucking clouds.

**Despain** · 2009-11-09 09:38

I'm more interested in wtf is going on in the very first picture.

**Dense** · 2009-11-09 09:46

Originally Posted by Despain

I'm more interested in wtf is going on in the very first picture.

Here:

Intersecting swirling trails left by the earlier passage of dust devils across sand dunes, as they lifted lighter reddish-pink dust and exposed the darker material below. Also visible are darker slope streaks along dune edges, formed by a process which is still under investigation.

**Dense** · 2009-11-09 09:47

Originally Posted by kuronosan

Wow, those have to be some pretty weird fucking clouds.

Clouds?

**Mizango** · 2009-11-09 09:57

I wish I could find the images NASA posted in the June edition of Science illustrated, they are mind blowingly beautiful.

I posted a few of those a few weeks ago in one of the Science threads but they are astonishing and cant be seen enough times imo.

**guartz** · 2009-11-09 10:04

http://inapcache.boston.com/universa...1_42851375.jpg

qadlgskjgd is that a cloud?

**Binne** · 2009-11-09 10:06

Wow, those are pretty cool to see. I will show to my son when he gets home from school today. Some of them look like the make up of certain cells or parts of cells, like one of them reminded me of mitochondria.

**Mizango** · 2009-11-09 10:13

Guartz, keep in mind that Mars is plagued by dust devils that reach miles and miles into the sky and some that dwarf tornadoes here on Earth.

What you are seeing in that image is the top of a dust devil's funnel.

**Ragnus** · 2009-11-09 10:14

I dub the last picture in the first group "Stomach Mountain"

**kuronosan** · 2009-11-09 11:36

Originally Posted by Mizango

Guartz, keep in mind that Mars is plagued by dust devils that reach miles and miles into the sky and some that dwarf tornadoes here on Earth.

What you are seeing in that image is the top of a dust devil's funnel.

Get out of here... that's not a cloud? Holy moat carp...

**Faris** · 2009-11-09 12:44

you know what those pics need? drugs. trippiest shit ever.

**Therin** · 2009-11-09 12:48

I'm confused about the scale of some of these. Some seem almost microscopic, and others as if they were taken from a few meters. Others still are obviously from several hundred or thousand meters up.

Still, very cool. Love me some astronomy.

**Mizango** · 2009-11-09 13:43

Originally Posted by kuronosan

Get out of here... that's not a cloud? Holy moat carp...

Swamp gas.

**saracrow** · 2009-11-09 13:47

Anyone else think of Star Wars ?

http://inapcache.boston.com/universa...7_53920995.jpg

**Koga** · 2009-11-09 13:52

Cool Shit. Saw this on FARK earlier today.

@Guartz - Not clouds, dust devils. Read the caption on the source site for descriptions of what each image is.

Also, Google Mars (See: Google Maps for Mars) is pretty fucking sweet too.

Gunitsoldier · 2009-11-09 13:58

Wow really nice, and as was said, will make great desktops

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