Chapter forty as the Mars Orbiter Camera on Mars Global Surveyor launched November 1996 and snapped 240,000 images of layered rock formations. Space Cruising brings most of these Martian Images."Grand Canyon"—the Valles Marineris—in December 2000. NASA scientists lost contact with the
surveyor on November 2, 2006. One hypothesis is that a solar panel became 'difficult to pivot', depriving the satellite of enough power to communicate with
Earth. Researchers are continuing efforts to re-establish contact with the
wayward probe, but the outlook is grim. "Realistically, we have run
through the most likely possibilities for re-establishing communication, and we
are facing the likelihood that the amazing flow of scientific observations from
Mars Global Surveyor are over.
The pictures, which are ten times better than images taken in the 1970s by the Mariner 9 and Viking spacecraft, are helping scientists unravel the mysteries of Martian geology—and whether the planet ever was covered by water. The uniformity of the sedimentary layers, for example, resembles formations created underwater on Earth. In separate explorations, the global surveyor also found that parts of Mars's surface contain large amounts of hematite, a mineral that often forms in the presence of liquid water. Earlier this year NASA's Mars Global Surveyor found dark markings on the red planet's south polar cap. Scientists suspect that these markings are formed in the spring when frozen carbon dioxide rapidly transforms into gas, as seen in this artist's conception.
Spring on Mars comes in like a lion, according to a new theory.
Geysers formed by warming temperatures spew dust and ice hundreds of feet into Mars's air, scientists write in the latest edition of the journal Nature.An artist's conception shows the violent thawing, which takes place near the planet's south pole. Some extensive mapping occurred Mars's polar ice caps expand each winter as carbon dioxide in the planet's atmosphere freezes, the researchers say.
But during spring, warmer weather slowly melts the expanded ice.Some of this ice becomes translucent, allowing sunlight to heat carbon dioxide below the surface, changing it from a solid directly into a gas in a process called sublimation. Eventually, the pressure from the gas becomes great enough that it penetrates the surface layer of ice in a violent eruption."These processes are unlike any observed on Earth," the researchers write. The scientists say the theory may explain a long-standing mystery: strange dark spots, fan-like structures, and spidery patterns that appear near Mars's southern pole every year. The dark spots and fans are dust thrown up by the geysers, while the spiders are the actual eruption sites, the scientists write.
The pictures, which are ten times better than images taken in the 1970s by the Mariner 9 and Viking spacecraft, are helping scientists unravel the mysteries of Martian geology—and whether the planet ever was covered by water. The uniformity of the sedimentary layers, for example, resembles formations created underwater on Earth. In separate explorations, the global surveyor also found that parts of Mars's surface contain large amounts of hematite, a mineral that often forms in the presence of liquid water. Earlier this year NASA's Mars Global Surveyor found dark markings on the red planet's south polar cap. Scientists suspect that these markings are formed in the spring when frozen carbon dioxide rapidly transforms into gas, as seen in this artist's conception.
Spring on Mars comes in like a lion, according to a new theory.
Geysers formed by warming temperatures spew dust and ice hundreds of feet into Mars's air, scientists write in the latest edition of the journal Nature.An artist's conception shows the violent thawing, which takes place near the planet's south pole. Some extensive mapping occurred Mars's polar ice caps expand each winter as carbon dioxide in the planet's atmosphere freezes, the researchers say.
But during spring, warmer weather slowly melts the expanded ice.Some of this ice becomes translucent, allowing sunlight to heat carbon dioxide below the surface, changing it from a solid directly into a gas in a process called sublimation. Eventually, the pressure from the gas becomes great enough that it penetrates the surface layer of ice in a violent eruption."These processes are unlike any observed on Earth," the researchers write. The scientists say the theory may explain a long-standing mystery: strange dark spots, fan-like structures, and spidery patterns that appear near Mars's southern pole every year. The dark spots and fans are dust thrown up by the geysers, while the spiders are the actual eruption sites, the scientists write.