Posted: 1/9/2010 8:36:33 PM EDT
 What are those things that look like trees? Anybody know? |
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Quoted: Quoted: Think they are cliffs and exposed rock. My initial guess would be they were pushed up volcanically then surface eroded by wind and sand . I would LOVE to check that out in person . Doesn't look volcanic to me. Maybe a space geologist is a member here and can tell us more!  |
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Is it a photograph or one of those Radar images that the color is off in? All color photos you see of mars are false color. They're made by layering IIRC green, blue, and near-IR images, and then those are color adjusted on earth. Lots of tin foilery going on about the manipulation of colors of mars pics - just google for something like "mars color photographs". Also, I'm glad I'm not the only person who saw that picture and though vaginas
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Maybe a space geologist is a member here and can tell us more!
my brother in law did his masters thesis on martian geology. i'll ask him and see what he says. That'll teach me to doubt the reach of Arfcom. turns out the brother in law is on vacation, so i just got a brief comment from him (and nothing really new) via my sister: "The coloring makes it look pretty fantastic, but the black streaks are dust or landslides on steeper slopes. There are little dunes between the hills it looks like, but it is really hard to get the right perspective on what is up and down. Looks cool!"
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This new image of Mars taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows an optical illusion. What appears to be trees rising from the Martian surface are actually dark streaks of collapsed material running down sand dunes due to carbon dioxide frost evaporation. The image was released in Jan. 2010. Naturally erupting dust clouds on Mars are creating structures that look surprisingly like trees near the planet's north pole. But don't be fooled – it's just an optical illusion, NASA scientists say. The Martian "trees" are actually dark basaltic sand pushed to the surface of sand dunes by sun-heated solid carbon dioxide ice, or dry ice, sublimating directly into vapor, explained Candy Hansen, a member of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) team at the University of Arizona. The sand dunes form a nearly complete ring around Mars' north pole and are covered by a thin layer of reddish Martian dust and patches of dry ice. To date, there is no firm evidence of any type of Martian biology, past or present, plant or otherwise. In the Martian spring, the sun warms the ice, causing it to sublimate directly into vapor, and the resulting gas dislodges surrounding dust and sand particles. "What we think is happening is that the dark sand is sliding down the bright frosted portion of the dune," Hansen told SPACE.com. The image, taken by MRO's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, is part of a series of Martian images appearing in a special issue of the journal Icarus this month. The Martian illusion is not the first to capture the imaginations of people on Earth. In 1976, a photograph of a rock formation on Mars beamed to Earth by NASA's Viking 1 orbiter looked to many like a face carved in the Martian surface. The Face on Mars photo's legacy has survived to this day, even after additional observations by more advanced spacecraft have revealed it to be a trick of light and shadows. Since then, other Martian illusions have popped up in images from orbiters and rovers, including an object that resembled a small bunny and a rock that looked like a female figure to some and Bigfoot to others. The streaks in the new image look as if they are rising up from the sand dunes, but that's an illusion, Hansen said. "You're looking at the slip face of the dune, and where the sand comes to a stop, it forms a sort of scallop-shaped edge at the bottom." Each dark sand streak can measure up to 164 feet in length. HiRISE actually caught one of the dust eruptions as they happened. "If you look closely, you can see this little dust cloud casting a tiny shadow," Hansen said. Copyright © 2010 Space.com. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. I guess there must have been a lot of speculation, updated story from Foxnews explains it. |
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got this from the bro-in-law
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_007962_2635 There is a vast region of sand dunes at high northern latitudes on Mars. In the winter, a layer of carbon dioxide ice covers the dunes, and in the spring as the sun warms the ice it evaporates. This is a very active process, and sand dislodged from the crests of the dunes cascades down, forming dark streaks.
In the subimage falling material has kicked up a small cloud of dust. The color of the ice surrounding adjacent streaks of material suggests that dust has settled on the ice at the bottom after similar events. Also discernible in this subimage are polygonal cracks in the ice on the dunes (the cracks disappear when the ice is gone). |
