Probe Captures Avalanche on Mars

mdekato writes "MSNBC reports that NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured an avalanche on Mars' surface as it happened. Very good still images show what must have been an awesome sight. 'The full image reveals features as small as a desk in a strip of terrain 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) wide and more than 10 times that long, at 84 degrees north latitude. Reddish layers known to be rich in water ice make up the face of a steep slope more than 2,300 feet (700 meters) tall, running the length of the image. Mars' north pole is covered by a cap of ice, and it even snows there. The scientists suspect that more ice than dust probably makes up the material that fell from the upper portion of the scarp.'"

Comments

Links to hi-res images

[jdb2]

Here are the links at which all the images taken by the HiRISE instrument can be found from low res to high res raw data :

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/gallery/press/20080303a.html/
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_007338_2640/


jdb2

Re:Links to hi-res images

[jdb2]

I'm replying to myself again as in my clumsiness I hit "Reply" instead of "Reply to this".
Anyway, remove the slashes from the ends of the URLs. My brain was in HTML mode. :P


jdb2

The original link, with many more stunning shots

[sighted]

The original story from NASA contains some fascinating additional details, a beautiful picture of the Earth and the Moon taken from Mars orbit, and links to thousands of other Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter images that were also released yesterday.

interesting

[wizardforce]

speaking of "avalanches" of dust and rock, the image that was thought to indicate present day water movement on mars may actually be the result of one of these dust avalanches instead.

Why post a third party summation - Go Direct NASA

[icebike]

It always amazes me that people will post the most slimmed down third party
summation of a detailed article that appears on a non-commercial site:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/mro20080303a.html