Where In The Universe #80
Written by Nancy Atkinson
Ready for another Where In The Universe Challenge? Here's #80! Take a look and see if you can name where in the Universe this image is from. Give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for the image. As usual, we’ll provide the image today, but won’t reveal the answer until tomorrow. This gives you a chance to mull over the image and provide your answer/guess in the comment section. Please, no links or extensive explanations of what you think this is — give everyone the chance to guess.
UPDATE: The answer has been posted below.
This image is from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showing season frost on dunes in Mars northern hemisphere, just south of the northern polar cap. It was taken on in July of 2008, which would have been summer at that time and place on Mars. This is one weird lookin' place on Mars. See the full image swath below, and see this page in the HiRISE website for more information.
Mars northern dunes. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Filed under: Where In the Universe?
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November 18th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
No question about it. This Mars, shot by the HiRISE camera onboard the MRO.
November 18th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
I think!, it's the dunes on mars.
November 18th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
It certainly does have that MROey look about it. Mars with MRO.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Hello to Everybody
After several futile attempts I finally managed to register!!!
Going back to the matter.
I'm the fourth to say that this characteristic image was shot by the Hirise camera located on MRO.
Another psychodelic image of Marsian dunes I suppose.
November 18th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Sand dunes somewhere on Mars,. . .
November 18th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
I think it may be a photo-micrograph of the grooves on something – perhaps a knurled surface.
November 19th, 2009 at 12:11 am
It looks like a wet surface to me. I don't know where but water drops must have gravity to move like that so I'll guess the shuttle.
November 19th, 2009 at 12:13 am
That is very reminiscent of microscopic imaging of thin films deformed under compressive stress.
As I can see similar wrinkles on surface images of Europa and Enceladus, I'll take a stab at this being stressed (compressed) ice. That could give the similar lengths channels (end of a stress field), the wrinkly surface (later expansive stress [hey! I'm not a mechanical engineer, I don't know what they call these doo-dads
]) and the scalloped features of the channels.
The image quality _do_ suggest HiRISE and so MRO, so I would say most likely it is a shot somewhere from the (larger) south polar region of Mars.
November 19th, 2009 at 1:56 am
Hi friends,
I also think it is Sand dunes in Mars : By HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
November 19th, 2009 at 3:46 am
For sure this is on Mars.
November 19th, 2009 at 4:05 am
It looks like a circuit trace, but I don't know on what object, so I'll say Earth.
November 19th, 2009 at 5:49 am
I spend a bit of time on the HiRISE site to see if I could spot this, but there are a lot of images there! The color scheme makes me think this is martian. Yet I could imagine this is a close up of chocolate stripes on top of a surgar cookie, or a micrograph with some false color scheme of some epitaxial or thin film deposition.
LC
November 19th, 2009 at 6:11 am
A beautiful Mars landscape (sand dunes) taken by HiRISE camera on MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) probe.
Unversity of Arizona.
November 19th, 2009 at 7:31 am
I'm gonna keep with the MRO response, but I'm gonna walk out on a limb and away from the "sand dunes" and say its some of the very exotic structures that have been formed on (i believe the southern?) ice cap of mars, from millions of years of sublimation.. I'm not exactly familiar with these structures but I have seen similar with the same "feel" and "color scheme" -SY
November 19th, 2009 at 8:29 am
Looks like CO2 ice forming near north polar cap, mars – HiRISE MRO
November 19th, 2009 at 8:32 am
I'd have to guess Mars as well, but it's only a guess. Good one!
November 19th, 2009 at 10:55 am
I would very much like to go with Mars but that underlying granular structure ticks me off…so i am not sure…
November 19th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Looks like the space shuttle has an oil leak.
November 19th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
I'm also gonna say this is a HiRISE image from the MRO, and I'm suspecting it's of polar dunes.
Man, that camera is something else!!!
November 21st, 2009 at 5:30 am
Well, I'll be duned! A larger sample shows how irregular the channel lengths really are.