Contortions on the Floor of Hellas Basin
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Contortions on the Floor of Hellas Basin
ESP_016022_1420  Science Theme: Glacial/Periglacial Processes
The floor of Hellas Basin is often obscured by atmospheric haze and dust, but it tends to be quite clear in northern spring and southern fall.

HiRISE images are revealing some very strange landforms on the floor of Hellas. Materials appear to have flowed in a viscous manner, like ice. Viscous flow features are common over the middle latitudes of Mars, but those in Hellas are often distinctive for unknown reasons.

The cutout shows an interesting area in color (reddish areas are dustier).

Written by: Alfred McEwen  (13 January 2010)

This is a stereo pair with PSP_007715_1420.
 
Acquisition date
26 December 2009

Local Mars time
14:42

Latitude (centered)
-37.455°

Longitude (East)
57.636°

Spacecraft altitude
259.6 km (161.3 miles)

Original image scale range
57.4 cm/pixel (with 2 x 2 binning) so objects ~172 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
50 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
25.9°

Phase angle
80.7°

Solar incidence angle
62°, with the Sun about 28° above the horizon

Solar longitude
29.3°, Northern Spring

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  95°
Sub-solar azimuth:  52.4°
JPEG
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IRB color
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RGB color
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JP2
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JP2 EXTRAS
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map-projected  (569MB)
non-map           (533MB)

IRB color
map projected  (311MB)
non-map           (472MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (1199MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (1100MB)

RGB color
non map           (437MB)
ANAGLYPHS
Map-projected, reduced-resolution
Full resolution JP2 download
Anaglyph details page

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
B&W label
Color label
Merged IRB label
Merged RGB label
EDR products
HiView

NB
IRB: infrared-red-blue
RGB: red-green-blue
About color products (PDF)

Black & white is 5 km across; enhanced color about 1 km
For scale, use JPEG/JP2 black & white map-projected images

USAGE POLICY
All of the images produced by HiRISE and accessible on this site are within the public domain: there are no restrictions on their usage by anyone in the public, including news or science organizations. We do ask for a credit line where possible:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

POSTSCRIPT
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.