Night and Day in Melas Chasma on Mars
Explanation:
What types of terrain are found on Mars?
Part of the answer comes from thermal imaging by the
robot spacecraft 2001 Mars Odyssey currently orbiting
Mars.
The
above picture is a superposition of two
infrared images,
a black and white image taken during
Martian daylight and a false-color image taken at night.
For the
daytime image, dark colors mean cool temperatures,
dropping from about -5 degrees
Celsius to low as -35 degrees
Celsius.
Shadowed regions appear particularly dark, while
grooved structure on the floor of
Melas Chasma indicates successively overlapping
landslides.
In the
nighttime swath, blue areas have cooled relatively quickly,
indicating a composition of fine-grained dust and
sand.
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.
