Here are 64 observations from the 1600 block of PSP street. Additionally, I have updated my three previous posts with images I missed the first time around.
PSP_001656_2175 is perhaps the most striking of the group, with prominent slope streaks. Slope streaks are also visible in PSP_001644_1715.
My personal favorites are the dune images: PSP_001608_2560 and PSP_001660_2570.
Two images have the “glow” problem: PSP_001662_1195 and PSP_001697_2570.
Here are 66 false-color images from the 1400 orbit range.
PSP_001406_2680 looks like the higher relief was saturated (too bright for the camera settings), possibly due to CO2 frost cover.
PSP_001432_2015 is really cool; it’s on the edge of Olympus Mons, on the steep scarp leading to the much more gradual rise of the shield volcano. The rippled rolling dunes in PSP_001432_2610 are in striking contrast to the rocky floors between them. Check out the amazing slot canyons fractures along the left side in PSP_001440_2175.
The atmospheric haze in PSP_001444_2610 is incredible, though it does screw up the color registration on the bottom half of the image. This is 30 degrees East of the aforementioned dune location, but the same type of terrain. On some of these images, there will be CTX (Context camera) images. With similar haze conditions, over on UnmannedSpaceflight.com, Nirgal shows a colorized CTX image from MRO orbit 3624 for which there is a HiRISE view.
There are so many other great images in this set. The Holden Crater image deserves special mention. This area is on the candidate list for MSL, as mentioned in a previous post. A stereo print was made of this region at about the same resolution you see here; it was amazingly sharp, like looking into a scale model or diorama.
Again, feel free to post your favorites here in the comments.
Updated (2008-Apr-10)
On Friday, HiRISE released over 1200 color observations. This was our first large release of the color products (not counting the 140+ images of MSL candidate sites released back in October). I was asked recently if our images look fairly similar to one another, or if they are all completely different. Well, you can now judge that for yourselves, but I feel the answer clearly tends toward the latter. The variety of terrain types on Mars is wider than you might have expected, and everywhere you look you’ll find something spectacular.
But I’d like to showcase one image in particular. Within this single image, there is a remarkable progression of landforms, in a view running down a small portion in the interior of Valles Marineris, the “Grand Canyon of Mars.” Here are a selected set of sub-images from the RGB color product; each thumbnail links to a larger view. All of the original products are available at our website.
At the top of the image is a flat, cratered plain, very much what one thinks of as typically Martian. The edge is abrupt, leading immediately to a steep descent crossing multiple layers of bedrock. The accumulating aprons of debris are channeled down between rocky ridges.
A number of boulder tracks are visible, remnants of mighty tumbles. You can follow one of these tracks for something like a kilometer down into the middle portion of the image. Here is a small part of this track.
Farther down, a network of scalloped terrain has formed in what must be a transition zone from the upper, steeper section and the lower, flatter step. What’s interesting to me about this section is, as shown in the image below, the scalloped edges form a stunning pattern of bifurcation.
PSP Image 1440-1255 shows a network of gully-like channels on the sides of dunes inside Russell Crater. On the sunward side, the channels are long and continuous, terminating at the base of the dunes. On the more shadowed side, strange stipples interrupt the otherwise silky smooth dune faces, as if the channel forming process never quite gets going.
Aside from the scientific significance of this image—which hopefully can tell us how these features formed and how recently—it is one sexybeautiful image, and my personal favorite so far!
This image and twelve others were released today; the first set of Primary Science Phase images from HiRISE.
