Yes, 13km further southeast puts the center of the ellipse right along the edge of the CTX coverage. I can't wait to see what you can put together Phil, since HiRISE is definitely going to be the best way to see it. Is it safe to assume anything about what 'southeast' means in this context? Since the old ellipse was northwest -> southeast, I'm wondering if this TCM just pushed the landing spot 13km further down the center-line of the old ellipse.

I've been working on improving the CTX mosaic nonetheless. This new one was done in ISIS, and improves on both the resolution and tone-matching compared to the one I previously posted. The scale on the full resolution version is 10 m/pixel.


Full Res (3.3 meg)

The ellipse shown above is NOT the full 3-sigma ellipse, but rather the smaller 1-sigma ellipse (32 km x 6.5 km). I based the ellipse on a KMZ file made by Ross Beyer that contained the coordinates of the old, post-launch pre-TCM ellipses (available here) and shifted it 13km down-range (which may be a bad assumption).

Here's a composite of slinted's new map and my latest HiRISE mosaic. Mine is uncontrolled - just matching features, and it's only very roughly fitted to the CTX map, just showing what we have for coverage. The 1 sigma ellipse is completely within the HiRISE coverage, as you might expect.

I think the ellipse is moved mostly along the axis. There isn't much room to push it sideways - not the 3 sigma ellipse, anyway.

Phil

And this is the central part of the ellipse - not nearly as bland as the low res images appear! - this is still far from the full HiRISE resolution, and very heavily compressed to get it to postable size.

Phil

Awesome, Phil. How about selecting a few representative patches of this view and giving it to us at absolute maximum resolution! I want to count the dandelions.

Great stuff Phil! Which HiRISE image shows the area from your closeup?

Great GREAT stuff!
I'm with Shaka here...We want more!

Another thing...some of you might know that I'll have at spacEurope today, the presence of Peter Smith for a live Q'n'A, but the man only confirmed the day not the hour...
I have proposed 1800UTC to 2000UTC, after that I may not have the chance to be present so, if I'm not there, Stu will assume the wheel, I asked this to Stu but I'll ask you the same, if some of you guys are thinking about dropping by, please, make PS feel like he's at home...

EDITED: Confirmed, Peter Smith will be there at 1800UTC, hope you guys can show up, it will be only for an hour but time enough to get some answers...

The image I showed is PSP_006996_2480_RED. I don't have time to do any full-res crops, but maybe someone else can play with it.

Phil

Wow! Are they relaxed impact craters or collapsed Martian pingos?


p

I'll have a go...

Here's a close-up of one of those intriguing "rings"...



And some full-resolution crops just taken at random from the HiRISE image...

... and a couple more...

Paging Tony Robinson... looks like a archeological geophysical survey showing medieval field boundaries. Or cells in a leaf?

My brain's interpreting the light coloured branching pattern material as topologically higher, is that purely a trick of the eye?

I was thinking the bright "branches" are kind of troughs, with a floor of light material. I have been interpreting the dark "spots" as mounds or dunes with defrosting tops... any input from anyone else on this..?

Would it be possible to add some measure of scale onto these pictures?

It's a bit difficult to visualise the size of the 'objects' we are looking at.

Cheers!

The pictures I posted are at the maximum HiRISE resolution possible... I'm sure that the scale info you need is available on the HiRISE site somewhere, or maybe someone else can tell you. Sorry I can't help more, I'm tied up with the Peter Smith live Q&A over on Rui's spacEurope blog at the mo...

My eyes are being tricked similarly to imipak's. Is the light generally coming from the top of the images? I seem to see 'boulders' with 'shadows' below. What is the minimum size of boulders we can resolve? Basketballs? Beachballs?
Fascinating stuff, but I really wish I knew what I was seeing.
Patterns of light 'frost' and dark 'dust'?? Are there any tundra experts able to help??
Does standing on your head help? Ouch. No.
Do these patterns change seasonally?