Arsia Mons, “the plume” reappears!VMC Mars Webcam, July 17, 2020At 05:49:35 UTC the VMC Mars Webcam on board the Mars Express probe, took this photo of Mars from an altitude of 9986.41 km.Here reappears the famous “plume” on Arsia Mons already observed in September 2018, which caused a stir and heated discussions about it (see https://www.facebook.com/PianetaMarte.MdM/posts/1882629478486903). For those who want to deepen implications and background of the phenomenon, I strongly recommend watching the video I made in November 2018 in which I illustrate why it can not be an orographic cloud (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO7zC9-WBN4). The original image has undergone noise reduction, white balance, and a slight increase in microcontrast in order to make the colors more similar to what the human eye would see.Original image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/esa_marswebcam/50122091017/ This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.

At 15:18:31 UTC Mastcam Right captured this double ridge of layered rocks and two knolls in the distance, against the backdrop of a visibly hazy sky.Note the difference between the two ridges; in particular, the terrain immediately below the ridge in the background appears to be furrowed with bluish tints in the first section and is much smoother than the rest of the terrain.During the previous Sol the soil temperature reached +10°C and although data for this Sol are not yet available, this is more or less the maximum temperature that the soil reaches near the rover during this period (source REMS: https://cab.inta-csic.es/rems/marsweather.html). The original image is a black and white encoding of the Bayer mask that has been converted to color through a process called “debayering” or “demosaicing.” In addition, the photo has undergone noise reduction due to Jpeg compression, white balance and a slight increase in microcontrast and color saturation in order to make the colors more similar to what the human eye would see. Original image: https://mars.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/02820/mcam/2820MR0147530150904294C00_DXXX.jpg This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.

Mapping of ancient lake shores, different minerals and violent volcanism of Jezero crater Two studies based on ESA’s Mars Express observations of Jezero Crater, the future landing site for NASA’s 2020 Mars Perseverance rover, have shed light on how and when this fascinating area formed and identified regions best suited to detect ancient signs of life. NASA’s 2020 Perseverance Mars rover will search for signs of past life on Mars and collect samples for a future return to Earth. NASA and ESA are currently working together on the mission design to bring these samples back to Earth by 2031. Two studies based on data from another space mission, ESA’s Mars Express, which has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2003, have identified which parts of the rover’s landing site are most likely to retain ancient signs of life, climate, water and volcanism. Both studied a part of Mars’ surface known as Nili Fossae and, more specifically, a crater within this area called Jezero. The Jezero crater contains a delta, clear evidence that water once flowed there in the form of an ancient lake, and contains large amounts of both olivine and carbonate minerals. Carbonates form in the presence of water and are known to trap “biological signatures,” the signatures of life, while olivine is present in magmatic rocks and can be used to explore and accurately date Mars’ volcanic past. “We have known for decades that Nili Fossae is a rather unique part of Mars and that Jezero crater was chosen as the landing site for the Perseverance rover because of this uniqueness,” says Lucia Mandon of the Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon (Terre, Planètes, Environnement) in France and author of a study on the mineralogy, age and evolution of the Nili Fossae region. “However, while this part of Mars has been well studied, scientists were still unsure how and when it formed, or how it came to contain all this olivine- and carbonate-rich material. In fact, at least six different scenarios have been proposed over the past two decades.” To resolve this uncertainty, Lucia Mandon and colleagues analyzed observations of the Nili Fossae region collected by ESA’s Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO); a mix of high-resolution images, topographic data, mineralogical data and thermal data. They thus discovered that the olivine-rich rock substrate in the region around Jezero crater covers at least 18,000 square kilometers and was formed about 3.8 billion years ago. Lucia Mandon adds:“One of the most popular theories about its formation suggests that the olivine-containing material formed as a layer of molten rock, created by the giant impact nearby that produced the huge Isidis Basin, but our chronology reveals that the olivine-rich bedrock formed tens of millions of years or more after this impact. However, we believe that this impact made the crust brittle and more prone to volcanism. After examining all plausible scenarios, we found that the Nili Fossae region was most likely sculpted by massive eruptions of ash and other material ejected by giant volcanoes. the volume erupted is colossal, more than 1000 times larger than that of the Vesuvius event that destroyed Pompeii in 79 AD.” This suggests that the common view of Martian volcanism, in which volcanic activity occurred primarily through lava flows with only a few instances of explosive activity, may not be entirely accurate. Lucia Mandon and colleagues also mapped the carbonates present in Nili Fossae, detecting some of the strongest concentrations right near the landing site of the Perseverance rover. These minerals are known to form in fairly neutral waters, environments that are favorable for most forms of life we know on Earth. “Carbonates that form along the shores of a lake on Earth are fantastic for preserving biological signatures,” says Briony Horgan of Purdue University, USA, lead author of a supplemental paper on the distribution and origin of carbonate-containing rocks in Jezero Crater. Also Briony Horgan adds:“Carbonate-producing alkaline lakes on Earth are almost always inhabited by stromatolites, large mineral domes created by layers of microbial mats, which are well known to have preserved some of the clearest and oldest biological traces left on our planet billions of years ago. While we don’t know if we will find stromatolites on Mars, we do know that this lacustrine environment would be a great place to look for biological traces and organic molecules that formed anciently on Mars.” Jezero Crater is the only known location on Mars where carbonates have been clearly detected in the vicinity of features indicating the presence of an ancient lake. Briony Horgan and colleagues studied the crater using data from Mars Express and MRO to find out whether carbonates formed within this lake or as a result of other processes, such as alteration due to rain. They found that while carbonates are present throughout the crater, there is a ring of strong carbonate signatures at altitudes where the shoreline of the ancient lake should have been. This suggests that those particular carbonates probably precipitated onto the lake shore, making them particularly interesting for both the study of water and potential past life on Mars. Then Briony Horgan adds:“These carbonates will be a key target for the Mars 2020 and Mars Sample Return missions because of their high potential for preserving biological signatures.We hope to be able to reach the littoral area during the primary Mars 2020 mission. This ring of carbonates at the old water level along the western edge of Jezero will be a particularly exciting part of the crater to explore.” One of the key pieces of evidence for these possible carbonates formed on the shores of the lake was the result of topography derived from the Mars Express high-resolution stereo camera (HRSC). Briony Horgan and colleagues used topographic data collected by Mars Express from orbit to determine the altitude of these minerals within the crater, which is essential to determining how they had formed. In addition, this research will clarify the history and nature of a crucial part of the Martian surface. When Perseverance lands in Jezero crater, it will examine both the olivine-rich rock substrate and carbonate ring studied by Lucia Mandon, Briony Horgan and colleagues; the rover team is also planning to collect samples of the rocky floor for future return to Earth. Resumes Lucia Mandon:“With a mission that brings samples back to Earth, we would then be able to accurately date these samples in a laboratory and compare this age to the age we inferred from orbit.This would allow us to calibrate the entire Martian time system and is a key example of why I find the Mars Sample Return mission so exciting and valuable.” Launched 17 years ago, Mars Express has been orbiting Mars since December 2003 and carries a suite of advanced instruments on board. These studies used data from the HRSC camera and the OMEGA (Observatoire pour la Minéralogie, l’Eau, les Glaces et l’Activité) spectrometer. Dmitri Titov, ESA’s Project Scientist for Mars Express, adds:“While HRSC maps the topography of Mars’ surface down to a few tens of meters per pixel, OMEGA produces detailed visible and near-infrared images that researchers can use to identify surface minerals. These instruments, along with those on the MRO, have been instrumental in accurately mapping the extent of carbonate and olivine material within Jezero crater, as they can cover large areas of the surface and provide detailed information about its topography and mineralogy. It is extremely exciting to consider how the many missions currently on Mars will support and complement the findings of the Perseverance rover when it reaches this scientifically exciting area of the Martian surface. Mars Express has 16 years of experience on the planet, which will prove invaluable for future exploration and efforts to bring Martian samples back to Earth.” Free translation of the article:“MARS EXPRESS HELPS UNCOVER THE SECRETS OF PERSEVERANCE LANDING SITE.” https://sci.esa.int/web/mars-express/-/mars-express-helps-uncover-the-secrets-of-perseverance-landing-site This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.

Dawn Mons, Mars Webcam, June 27, 2020 At 17:52:18 UTC the VMC Mars Webcam on board the Mars Express, took this picture of Mars from an altitude of 9853.22 km.The right pane of this image shows us an elevation map of the Red Planet oriented very similarly to the photo taken by the Mars Express.There is noticeable activity associated with the Alba Mons volcano, for the moment of unknown origin.More information will be provided as it becomes available.The original image has undergone noise reduction, white balance and a slight increase in microcontrast in order to make the colors more similar to what the human eye would see. Original image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/esa_marswebcam/50052644896/in/photostream/ This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.

At 05:49:19 UTC the Mastcam Right shot this beautiful stratified rock, furrowed by intrusions of the most incredible shapes.As in a work of modern art, the pareidolia is the master and every single detail can suggest the most disparate forms, when nature proves to be the greatest artist in the universe!The original image is a black and white encoding of the Bayer mask that has been converted to color through a process called “debayering” or “demosaicing”. In addition, the photo has undergone noise reduction due to Jpeg compression, white balance and a slight increase in microcontrast and color saturation in order to make the colors more similar to what the human eye would see. Original image: https://mars.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/02803/mcam/2803MR0147010001203864C00_DXXX.jpg This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.

The NOMAD instrument, developed at the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy and currently orbiting Mars aboard ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, has detected a unique green glow of oxygen in the atmosphere surrounding the red planet at an altitude of about 80 km. This emission accounts for the characteristic color of Earth’s polar aurora and air glow, but has never before been observed in other planetary atmospheres outside of Earth. This light emission is created by the interaction between solar radiation and carbon dioxide, which is the main constituent of Mars’ atmosphere. On Mars, as in a large natural laboratory, we have also been able to simultaneously measure the two oxygen lines in the visible and ultraviolet, which clears up a long-standing controversy between discordant quantum mechanical calculations and atmospheric measurements on Earth. The aurora, however, is only one of the ways in which planetary atmospheres are illuminated. The atmospheres of planets, including Earth and Mars, constantly glow both day and night as sunlight interacts with atoms and molecules within the atmosphere, a phenomenon commonly referred to as “airglow.” Daytime and nighttime glow is caused by slightly different mechanisms. Nighttime glow results from the recombination of molecules that have been destroyed by solar radiation during the day. Light is emitted when excited atoms or molecules return to their original unexcited state during the night. One of the brightest emissions on Earth comes from night glow, specifically from excited oxygen atoms that radiate light at a particular wavelength of light (557.7 nanometers), a green radiation emitted in the spectral region where our eyes are most sensitive. The green layer of night glow is quite faint, so that it can only be seen at night by looking sideways at the layer of air emitting the glow, as with astronauts in orbit. This optical phenomenon has been captured with cameras aboard the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. The daytime glow is created when solar radiation interacts directly with the atmosphere. Atoms and molecules (such as nitrogen and oxygen) in the atmosphere absorb some of the sunlight, which temporarily excites them until they release this additional energy in the form of light, either at the same frequency or at a lower frequency (color) than the absorbed light. This emission is much fainter than the light scattered by the Sun, so we cannot see it with the naked eye. Although it had been predicted for about 40 years that the green daylight glow existed on Mars, until now, it had never been observed in the atmospheres of other planets, either because their surfaces are too bright compared to atmospheric light emission or because previous missions to the planets were not equipped with instruments sensitive to both visible and ultraviolet light. To remedy this, the NOMAD team at the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy and the Université de Liège decided to reorient the instrument’s ultraviolet and visible (UVIS) channel from its typical nadir orientation (looking directly down on the Martian surface) toward the diurnal edge of Mars. Between April 24 and December 1, 2019, the NOMAD team used UVIS to scan at altitudes ranging from 20 to 400 kilometers above the Martian surface twice per orbit. On each of those “special observation modes of the planet’s edge,” the instrument detected surprisingly bright signals at 557.7 nanometers, demonstrating the ubiquity of the daytime green glow. The main peak altitude was near 80 km and its intensity varied due to the change in distance between Mars and the Sun, local time, and latitude of the observations. A second peak emission was observed near 120 km altitude. Another weaker emission of the oxygen glow was also observed at 297.2 nanometers in the near ultraviolet range. Such a simultaneous measurement of two oxygen lines in the visible and ultraviolet spectral ranges is quite unique and allowed the direct derivation of a 16.5 ratio of visible to UV emissions, which is difficult even for a laboratory on Earth. A photochemical model, developed at the University of Liège, was used to better understand this green glow on Mars and to compare it to what we see on our own planet. The model was able to reproduce the altitude and brightness of the air layer. It also indicates that the green daytime glow on Mars is produced primarily when carbon dioxide (CO2) molecules are broken down into oxygen (O) and carbon monoxide (CO) by the far ultraviolet emitted by the Sun. The resulting oxygen atoms glowed in both visible and ultraviolet light. Our result agrees with models from atomic physics but contradicts previous observations made in Earth’s glows and auroras. The emission ratio of 16.5, found in this study, will be considered a standard for measurements linking the ultraviolet to visible spectral regions. This result has implications for the study of auroral processes, airglow, and the spectral calibration of optical instruments. Free translation of the article:“ExoMars NOMAD spots unique green light at Mars.” https://www.aeronomie.be/en/news/2020/exomars-nomad-spots-unique-green-light-mars This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.

At 19:21:08 UTC Mastcam Right captured this beautiful layered rock.The morphology of the upper surface is beautiful, with unique looking loops and depressions.I find equally beautiful the color gradients present from the top to the bottom of the rock itself.The rest of the image also contains very interesting details that I recommend you look at carefully…The original image is a black and white encoding of the Bayer mask that has been converted to color through a process called “debayering” or “demosaicing”. In addition, the photo has undergone noise reduction due to Jpeg compression, white balance and a slight increase in microcontrast and color saturation in order to make the colors more similar to what the human eye would see. Original image: https://mars.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/02790/mcam/2790MR0146130811202961C00_DXXX.jpg This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.

At 16:37:01 UTC the Mastcam Right captured this ridge of stratified rocks, from which some flows, probably of water, originate, furrowing the smoother part of the ground immediately below the larger rocks on top of the ridge itself.This detail has already been photographed before, but unfortunately from unfavorable angles, so I hope to see this area again in future photos to observe any changes.The original image is a black and white encoding of the Bayer mask that has been converted to color through a process called “debayering” or “demosaicing”. In addition, the photo has undergone a reduction in noise due to Jpeg compression, white balance and a slight increase in microcontrast and color saturation in order to make the colors more similar to what the human eye would see. Original image: https://mars.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/02786/mcam/2786MR0145950031202779C00_DXXX.jpg This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.

At 17:39:19 UTC the Mastcam Left has taken another track impressed by a wheel of the rover, which also in this case shows us a soil definitely wet and therefore as plastic as clay to model!Also in this case the contours are extraordinarily clear, even where the soil is rich in pebbles, the compactness and cohesion observed is therefore justified only by the presence of water.As I have already explained in the photo of the previous Sol (see https://www.facebook.com/PianetaMarte.MdM/posts/2975358355880671) the local environmental conditions seem favorable to the formation of liquid water and therefore we should not be surprised so much …What should instead be surprising is the complex roughness of rocks that should have been extremely smooth by erosion, rocks that instead show an almost “coral” appearance!The original image is a black and white encoding of the Bayer mask that has been converted to color through a process called “debayering” or “demosaicing”. In addition, the photo has undergone noise reduction due to Jpeg compression, white balance and a slight increase in microcontrast and color saturation in order to make the colors more similar to what the human eye would see. Original image: https://mars.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/02781/mcam/2781ML0145630030606476C00_DXXX.jpg This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.