Mamers Valles Images Contains Crater on “Fretted Terrain”
Gathering a lot of attention lately, the 600-mile Mamers Valles trough which gently winds through the Arabia Terra ragged highlands is showing signs of flowing ice beneath a layer of rock. But quite recently data information from August of 2006 came out to the public regarding a circular depression that is located on the south-eastern end of Mamers Valles, which runs along the boundary between the northern lowlands and southern highlands of Deuteronilus Mensaie.
Most articles referring to Mamers Valles term its surface “fretted terrain” because images show deep and wide labyrinth-shaped valleys and circular depressions, with some of the structures showing water formation flowing on their floor. With some scientists theorizing that the structures are ice-rich debris flows, they show a slight resemblance to block glaciers on Earth.
Dating about 3.8 billion years ago, the Mamers Valles dates from the early Hesperian period in the Martian history, documented because its floor contains younger material that is a few million years old or even less. With material in the valley basically uncratered, it was a surprise when images from the High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on the ESA spacecraft Mars Express were found at the valley’s end. With dimensions showing a 30 km wide and 1400 m deep circular depression, it is being studied for additional water information.
Presently the ESA Mars Express is one of the three spacecraft orbiting Mars, alone having been there since December 2003. The trio also involves NASA and ESA, preparing for the May 25th Phoenix landing on Mars with the Mars Express already adjusting its orbit for the provision of a critical back-up. NASA’s Mars Odyssey and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will be monitoring the stream of transmitted data, informing ESA that if anything goes wrong they have permission to monitor the 13-minute entry, descent, and landing phase of the Phoenix.
Phoenix lander was originally part of the 2001 Mars Surveyor Program until the loss of the Surveyor, now a component of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. Part of a low-cost project to study the Martian ice cap, it is the first step of the Mars Scout mission. Its studies will hopefully provide some sort of evidence for Martian life, found with measurement by the Phoenix’s robotic arm which can dig over three feet into the subsurface.
This entry was posted on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 9:27 am and is filed under Mission History, Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
