Photo of the day: high resolution 360 ° panorama of Mars. Surface of the red planet Mars panoramas in high resolution

Impact crater about three kilometers in size

The surface of Mars is a dry and barren wasteland covered with old volcanoes and craters.

Dunes through the eyes of Mars Odyssey

Photos show that she may have been hidden by a single sandstorm, which shelters her from observation for several days. Despite the formidable conditions, Mars has been better studied by scientists than any other world in the solar system, except our own, of course.

Since the planet has almost the same slope as the Earth, and it has an atmosphere, then there are seasons. The surface temperature is about -40 degrees Celsius, but at the equator it can reach +20. There are traces of water on the surface of the planet, and features of the relief formed by water.

Landscape

Let's take a closer look at the surface of Mars, information provided by numerous orbiters, as well as rovers, allows you to fully understand what the red planet is. Ultra-crisp images show us dry, rocky terrain covered in fine red dust.

Red dust is actually iron oxide. Everything from the ground to small stones and rocks is covered in this dust.

Since Mars has neither water nor confirmed tectonic activity, its geological features remain virtually unchanged. Compared to the Earth's surface, which is undergoing constant changes associated with water erosion and tectonic activity.

Surface of Mars video

The terrain of Mars is composed of a variety of geological structures. It is home to renowned throughout Solar system... That's not all. The most famous canyon in the solar system is the Mariner Valley, also on the surface of the Red Planet.

Look at the pictures from the rovers, which show a lot of details that are not visible from orbit.

If you have a desire to look at Mars online, then

Photo surface

The images below are from Curiosity, a rover that is actively exploring the red planet.

To view in full screen mode, click on the button in the upper right.

Panorama transmitted by the Curiosity rover

This panorama represents the section of Gale Crater in which Curiosity conducts its research. The high hill in the center is Mount Sharpe, to the right of it you can see the ring shaft of the crater in the haze.

To view it in full size, save the image to your computer!

These photographs of the surface of Mars are from 2014 and are in fact the most recent at the moment.

Of all the features of the landscape of Mars, perhaps the most widely publicized are the mesas of Sidonia. Early photographs of the Sedonia region showed the hill in the form of a “human face”. However, later pictures, with more high resolution, presented us with an ordinary hill.

Dimensions of the planet

Mars is pretty small world... Its radius is half that of Earth, and it has a mass that is less than one tenth of ours.

Dunes, shot by MRO

More about Mars: the surface of the planet consists mainly of basalt covered with a thin layer of dust, iron oxide, which has the consistency of talc. Iron oxide (rust, as it is commonly called) gives the planet its characteristic red hue.

Volcanoes

In ancient times, volcanoes erupted continuously on the planet for millions of years. Due to the fact that Mars does not have plate tectonics, huge volcanic mountains have formed. Mount Olympus was similarly formed and is the largest mountain in the solar system. It is three times taller than Everest. Such volcanic activity may also partly explain the deepest valley in the solar system. The Mariner Valley is believed to have formed as a result of the decay of material between two points on the surface of Mars.

Craters

Animation showing changes around a crater in the Northern Hemisphere

There are many impact craters on Mars. Most of these craters remain intact because there is no force on the planet to destroy them. The planet lacks wind, rain and plate tectonics that cause erosion on Earth. The atmosphere is much thinner than that of Earth, so even small meteorites can fly to the ground.

The current surface of Mars is very different from what it was billions of years ago. Orbiter data showed that there are many minerals and traces of erosion on the planet, which indicate the presence of liquid water in the past. It is possible that small oceans and long rivers once complemented the landscape. The last remnants of this water were trapped underground in the form of ice.

Total number of craters

There are hundreds of thousands of craters on Mars, 43,000 of which are more than 5 kilometers in diameter. Hundreds of them were named after scientists or famous astronomers. Craters less than 60 km across have been named after cities on Earth.

The most famous is Hellas Basin. It is 2,100 km across and up to 9 km deep. It is surrounded by emissions that stretch 4000 km from the center.

Crater formation

Most of the craters on Mars probably appeared during the late "heavy bombardment" of our solar system, which occurred approximately 4.1 to 3.8 billion years ago. In this period, a large number of craters formed on all celestial bodies in the solar system. Evidence of this event is the study of lunar samples, which showed that most of the rocks were created during this time interval. Scientists cannot agree on the reasons for this bombing. According to the theory, the orbit of the gas giant changed and as a result, the orbits of objects in the main asteroid belt and Kuiper belt became more eccentric, reaching the orbits of the terrestrial planets.

Hellas Planitia

The second largest Hellas Planitia and the largest impact crater known in the solar system. It is located in the southern hemisphere of Mars. Data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mars Global Surveyor show that most of the planet's northern hemisphere is actually one large crater. This disputed region is now called the Arctic Basin and could potentially be 10,500 km in diameter, which is about 40% of the circumference of Mars itself. Scientists are still debating the interpretation of this data.

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has unveiled a stunning 360-degree panorama of Mars captured by the cameras of the Curiosity robot.

The rover has reportedly climbed the Naukluft Plateau in the area of Aeolis Mons, informally known as Mount Sharp. The journey was fraught with risks as the rover had to wade between sharp rocks and boulders that pose a threat to the aluminum wheels.

By the way, traces of damage on the Curiosity wheels became noticeable back in 2013. Therefore, NASA specialists have to carefully plan any route in order to maximize the life of the robot's active operation.

The presented high-resolution panorama allows you to examine in great detail the mesmerizing Martian expanses. The image captures a landscape that has formed over millions of years. The panorama in the original size of 29163 × 6702 pixels can be viewed here.

We add that the Curiosity rover was sent to the Red Planet in November 2011 and arrived at its destination in August 2012. In the fall of 2014, the device reached one of the main objectives of its mission - the aforementioned Mount Eolis. During its stay on the Red Planet, the rover collected and transmitted to Earth a large amount of important scientific data.

> Panorama of Mars from the Curiosity and Opportunity rover

Explore online panorama of Mars from the rover Curiosity and Opportunity: the surface of Mars in 360 degrees, a movable interactive map in high resolution.

NASA releases first official images showing the surface Mars in crystal-clear detail that was captured by its Curiosity rover. Mars panorama consists of one billion pixels connected from about 900 exposures taken by cameras on board Curiosity.

Panorama from the rover Opportunity

A circular panorama of Mars was filmed from where Curiosity collected its first samples of dusty sand, from a windswept site called "Rocknest" and captures Mount Sharp on the horizon.

Bob Deen of the Multipurpose Imaging Lab at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California, said it gives a sense of the place and shows real opportunities cameras. "You can see the environment in general and also zoom in to see the smallest details," he added.

Dean assembled the image using 850 telephoto shots of Curiosity's Mast Camera tool. He then added 21 frames from Mastkam's wider camera, and 25 black and white frames (mostly images of the rover itself) from the navigation camera. The images were captured over several different Martian days between October 5 and November 16, 2012.

Earlier this year, photographer Andrew Bodrov used Curiosity imagery to assemble his own mosaic images of the planet, including at least one gigapixel panorama. Its mosaic shows lighting effects as the time of day changes. It also shows changes in atmospheric clarity, in line with changes in dustiness during the month the images were taken.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission is using Curiosity and the rover's 10 research instruments to study the history of the environment around Gale Crater, where the mission's preliminary findings might have previously been conducive to microbial life.

Malin Space Science Systems Company (Systems space exploration) from San Diego, has created and operates Mastcam cameras at Curiosity. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Division of California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, created the rover itself and its navigation camera, and manages the project through the Directorate for scientific programs NASA in Washington.

Curiosity took a self-portrait at the "Big Sky" drilling site

Bodrov spent two weeks creating an interactive image using 407 frames from narrow-angle and mid-angle cameras located on top of the rover. He also used a bit of digital retouching in his work. He told Popular Science that the camera is only 2 megapixel, which isn't much by today's standards. “Of course, the need to fly these electronic components from Earth to Mars, and their collisions with radiation and other hazards, means that they could not use conventional cameras,” he said. Bodrov added the sky and the previous Curiosity images to the 90000x45000 panorama using Photoshop.

In March, NASA management calmed down after the problem with the failure of the computer system, which halted all operations for a whole week, was resolved. This meant they could go back to researching dust. rocks found on the planet. From April 4, radio communications between Earth and Mars will be blocked by the Sun, which means that work will be stopped again until May 1.

To date, the $ 2 billion six-wheeled rover, which landed on the planet in August to begin its two-year mission, will continue to analyze rock samples containing all the chemical components necessary for life.

Scientists have identified sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon in the dust Curiosity extracted from sedimentary rock near an ancient riverbed in what is called Yellowknife Bay within Gale Crater. They believe that billions of years ago, water filled the crater and, pouring out of it, formed streams, which must be up to 3 feet deep.

This color mosaic image from the Curiosity rover shows the layers of material along the edge of the valleys at the "Pahrump Hills"

During the opening of the project, scientist John Grotzinger said: “We have found a suitable environment which is so soft and life-sustaining that it is likely that if you were there and this water was around you, you could drink it. "

Ultimately, scientists plan to lead the rover to a three-mile-high hill, which is possibly covered with layers of sediment raised from the bottom of Gale Crater.

The high-resolution camera (HiRISE) received the first cartographic images of the surface of Mars from an altitude of 280 km, with a resolution of 25 cm / pixel!
Layered sediments in the Gebe canyon.

Potholes on the wall of Gus's crater. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Geysers of Manhattan. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

The surface of Mars is covered with dry ice. Have you ever played with dry ice (with leather gloves, of course!)? Then you probably noticed that dry ice from solid state immediately turns into gaseous, in contrast to regular ice, which, when heated, turns into water. On Mars, ice domes are composed of dry ice ( carbon dioxide). When the sun's rays fall on the ice in the spring, it turns into a gaseous state, which causes surface erosion. Erosion gives rise to bizarre arachnid forms. This image shows channels that are eroded and filled with light ice which contrasts with the muted red of the surrounding surface. In the summer, this ice will dissolve in the atmosphere and instead, only channels remain, similar to ghostly spiders carved into the surface. This type of erosion is characteristic only of Mars and is not possible in natural conditions on Earth, since the climate of our planet is too warm. Lyricist: Candy Hansen (March 21, 2011) (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Layered mineral deposits at the southern end of the mid-latitude crater. Light layered deposits are visible in the center of the image; they appear along the edges of the mesas located on high ground. Similar deposits can be found in many places on Mars, including craters and canyons near the equator. It could have formed as a result of sedimentary processes under the influence of wind and / or water. Dunes or folded formations are visible around the Mesa. The folded structure is the result of differential erosion: when some materials erode more easily than others. It is possible that this area was once covered with soft sedimentary deposits, which have now disappeared as a result of erosion. Lyricist: Kelly Kolb (April 15, 2009) (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Underlying rocks protruding on the walls and the central hill of the crater. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

The solid structures of the salt mountain in the Ganges canyon. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Someone has carved out a piece of the planet! (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Sand mounds formed by spring sandstorms at the North Pole. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

A crater with a central hill, 12 kilometers in diameter. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

The Cerberus Fossae fault system on the surface of Mars. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

The purple dunes of Proctor Crater. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Light rock outcrops on the walls of the Mesa in the Land of the Sirens. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Spring changes in the Ithaca area. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Russell Crater Dunes. Photos taken at Russell Crater are studied repeatedly to track changes in the landscape. This image shows individual dark formations, which were probably caused by repeated dust storms that carried away light dust from the surface of the dunes. Narrow channels continue to form on steep sand dune surfaces. The depressions at the end of the channels may be where blocks of dry ice accumulated before becoming gaseous. Lyricist: Ken Herkenhoff (March 9, 2011) (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Troughs on the crater walls beneath the outcrop. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Areas where olivine is likely to be abundant. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Ravines between the dunes at the bottom of the Kaiser crater. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Valley of Mort. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Sediments at the bottom of the Labyrinth of Night canyon. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Holden Crater. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Santa Maria Crater. HiRISE captured a color image of St. Mary's crater showing the Opportunity robocar stuck at the southeastern rim of the crater. Robocar collected data on this relatively new crater, 90 meters in diameter, in order to determine what factors influenced its appearance. Pay attention to the surrounding blocks and beams of the formations. Spectral analysis of CRISM reveals the presence of hydrogen sulfates in this area. The wreckage of the robocar is located 6 kilometers from the edge of the Endeavor Crater, the main materials of which are hydrosulfates and phylosilicates. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

The central hill of a large, well-preserved crater. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Russell Crater Dunes. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Layered sediments in the Geba canyon. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Yardang area Eumenides Dorsum. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Sand movement in the Gusev crater, located near the hills of Columbia. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

The northern mountain range Hellas Planitia, possibly rich in olivine. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Seasonal changes at the site of the South Pole, covered with cracks and potholes. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Remains of the southern polar caps in spring. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Frozen hollows and potholes at the pole. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Deposits (possibly of volcanic origin) in the Labyrinth of Night. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Layered outcrops on the crater wall located at the North Pole. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Solitary arachnid formation. This formation consists of channels carved into the surface, which are formed by the evaporation of carbon dioxide. The channels are arranged radially, widening and deepening as they approach the center. Such processes do not occur on Earth. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

The relief of the Athabasca Valley.

Crater cones of the Utopia Planitia plain. Plain Utopia (Utopia Planitia) - a giant lowland located in the eastern part of the northern hemisphere of Mars, and adjacent to the Great Northern Plain. The craters in the area are of volcanic origin, as evidenced by their shape. Craters are virtually unaffected by erosion. Cone-shaped hills or craters like the formations shown in this image are quite common in the northern latitudes of Mars. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Polar sand dunes. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Inner part of Tooting crater. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Trees on Mars !!! In this photo, we see something strikingly similar to trees growing among the Martian dunes. But these "trees" are an optical illusion. These are actually dark deposits on the leeward side of the dunes. They appeared as a result of the evaporation of carbon dioxide, "dry ice". The evaporation process begins in the lower part of the ice formation, as a result of this process, gas vapors escape through the pores to the surface and simultaneously carry out dark deposits that remain on the surface. This image was taken by the HiRISE spacecraft aboard NASA's Orbiter reconnaissance satellite in April 2008. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)

Victoria Crater. The photo shows the deposits on the crater wall. The bottom of the crater is covered with sand dunes. The wreckage of NASA's robocar Opportunity is visible on the left. The picture was taken by the HiRISE satellite, installed on board the NASA Orbiter reconnaissance satellite, in July 2009. (NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona)

Linear dunes. These strips are linear sand dunes at the bottom of the crater in the Noachis Terra area. The dark areas are the dunes themselves, and the light areas are the gaps between the dunes. The photo was taken on December 28, 2009 by the HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) astronomical camera installed on board the NASA Orbiter reconnaissance satellite. (NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)