Haunting Mars
Explanation:
This Halloween, the news about
Mars is good news -
Mars Global Surveyor will
resume aerobraking
into a mapping orbit around the
haunting red planet.
Wide angle cameras onboard the spacecraft
recently recorded this shadowy
image of Olympus Mons, the Solar System's
largest volcano, from an altitude of over 100 miles.
The summit depression or caldera of
Olympus Mons is about 40 miles across
and 15 miles above the Martian surface.
On Halloween Night in 1938, Mars
also made the news when
Orson Welles' radio theatre adaptation of H.G. Wells'
"War of the Worlds" -
a fictional account
of invaders from Mars -
was dramatized as a live news report.
The performance was so convincing it tricked some listeners, but most
who heard the broadcast felt it was a treat.
Have a happy and safe Halloween!
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
