Round Thing Near South Pole |
![]() ![]() |
Round Thing Near South Pole |
![]()
Post
#1
|
|
Member ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 235 Joined: 2-August 05 Member No.: 451 ![]() |
Here is an image which I think is from Mars Odyssey, but I'm not certain. It is from one of the orbiters. Thanks to a friend in another forum for pointing it out.
It shows a dark, very close to circular, ring near the extremities of the polar cap. http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/e13_e18/me...14/E1401276.jpg http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/e13_e18/im...4/E1401276.html It may be that this feature has already been discussed here, if so can someone please point me to the discussion. Otherwise, I am curious to know what you think may have caused this. |
|
|
![]()
Post
#2
|
|
Senior Member ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 1276 Joined: 25-November 04 Member No.: 114 ![]() |
Wow!
I would love to land a rover here. |
|
|
![]()
Post
#3
|
|
Member ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 235 Joined: 2-August 05 Member No.: 451 ![]() |
|
|
|
Guest_Myran_* |
![]()
Post
#4
|
Guests ![]() |
Interesting, I took the opportunity to lighten that dark part and found concentric lines running around the rim.
Yes inspired by the great work of others here Myran have done the first ever image enhancement, nothing added but not entirely true to he original either. ![]() In lack of a better explanation I would guess its a crater, if its impact or a volcanic caldera im unable to judge, but the enhanced image makes me go for a wild guess at caldera. ![]() |
|
|
![]()
Post
#5
|
|
Member ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 477 Joined: 2-March 05 Member No.: 180 ![]() |
Perhaps it's from an impact when the ice cap was melted slightly - maybe slushy, and then it refroze?
|
|
|
![]()
Post
#6
|
|
Senior Member ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 1636 Joined: 9-May 05 From: Lima, Peru Member No.: 385 ![]() |
I don't think it is a volcanic crater. It might be of an 90 degree vertical impact of a perfect sphereal meteor when the land was somewhat mud, a mix of sand and water. The meteore impact might have happened when the land was covered by ice or snow.
Rodolfo |
|
|
![]()
Post
#7
|
|
![]() Senior Member ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239 ![]() |
QUOTE (antoniseb @ Sep 6 2005, 02:15 PM) Here is an image which I think is from Mars Odyssey, but I'm not certain. It is from one of the orbiters. Thanks to a friend in another forum for pointing it out. It shows a dark, very close to circular, ring near the extremities of the polar cap. http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/e13_e18/me...14/E1401276.jpg http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/e13_e18/im...4/E1401276.html It may be that this feature has already been discussed here, if so can someone please point me to the discussion. Otherwise, I am curious to know what you think may have caused this. Is there a 2Km high MER nearby, and is this a RAT hole? -------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
|
|
|
![]()
Post
#8
|
|
![]() Member ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 809 Joined: 11-March 04 Member No.: 56 ![]() |
Ask Paxdan; he's been known to create features similar to this one.
![]() |
|
|
Guest_Myran_* |
![]()
Post
#9
|
Guests ![]() |
Oh yes, I side with you Jeff7, and I said I was very uncertain. One impact that melted the ice to some degree and the energy for one impact does not have to be from a perfectly round object - it could have been quite smaller but the energy from the impact spread in one even way. But the darm rim are unusual and could be material from underneath, any chanse of retargeting Phoenix? (Just kiddin) But it would be one good idea to check this feature out some time in the future.
|
|
|
Guest_Richard Trigaux_* |
![]()
Post
#10
|
Guests ![]() |
I think you should not be excited you all: patterns of parallel straight lines are common in Martian ice caps. The more common explanation is that these ice caps are formed of layers of water ice, dust, carbon dioxid ice... When an ice cap evaporates (and not melt, it is impossible in today Mars conditions) evaporating starts from the border of the ice cap, while lefting the top untouched (because the redish soil around is hotter than the white ice). So the ice cap erodes in a way to cut through all its layers (like in Colorado Canyon) showing, from above, sets of numerous parallel lines. It is most probably what hapened here. Why is it circular? probably because it started from a spot, a meteorite impact, or an underlying crater.
By the way if an impact makes ice melt, the resulting water will stlle in hollow in a matter of some minutes and freeze in some hours, far after any wave is dissipated: it is impossible to freeze a wave. |
|
|
![]()
Post
#11
|
|
![]() Senior Member ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 ![]() |
QUOTE (Bob Shaw @ Sep 6 2005, 05:16 PM) Martian NASCAR track? -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
|
|
Guest_Myran_* |
![]()
Post
#12
|
Guests ![]() |
QUOTE Richard Trigaux said: it is impossible to freeze a wave. I never suggested anything such either. When water freeze its expands somewhat. On larger areas of water this creates ice ridges since the small expansion are multiplied many times over and you get a stress so large that sheats of ice piles up in long lines. As a child I often crawled into the triagular cages that they have within, a magical kingdom with a very special light perfect for my childhood fantasies. But back to the question at hand here, if we start with one perfectly round lake caused by one meteor impact or volcanic heat doesnt actually matter, the pushing action of the freezing water would push against the hard shore of frozen ice that surrounds it on all sides. Since it started out with a round shape from the very start it would tend to freeze towards the center with circles within circles. A more important question is why it have a dark edge, im unable to answer that. |
|
|
![]()
Post
#13
|
|
Senior Member ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 1636 Joined: 9-May 05 From: Lima, Peru Member No.: 385 ![]() |
QUOTE (Myran @ Sep 7 2005, 10:01 AM) The dark land is due to ,maybe, the fact that the land is wet so it appear to be darker than a dry land. Rodolfo ![]() P.D.The only thing that can make a perfect circle is the water waves after an impact. |
|
|
Guest_Richard Trigaux_* |
![]()
Post
#14
|
Guests ![]() |
About freezing waer waves:
QUOTE (Myran @ Sep 7 2005, 03:01 PM) This is a common suggestion, which was often proposed, so I tried to dismiss it. But your own explanation about freezing lakes making geometrical paterns is interesting, and we could expect to find such things on Mars if there are somewhere frozen lakes. I think that large floods of water flowed on Mars, from volcanic origin or breaking up water tables. This water necessarily ended somewhere, where we may find such effects you describe. About freezing waer waves: QUOTE (Myran @ Sep 7 2005, 03:01 PM) Yes it matters. Meteorite impacts are common and not very interesting, while a recent volcanic activity would be. Now we think that volcanic activities on Mars started at least 2 billions years ago, eventually had a maximum, but dit not really ended today. Only eruptions are one over 10-40 million years. |
|
|
![]()
Post
#15
|
|
Senior Member ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 1636 Joined: 9-May 05 From: Lima, Peru Member No.: 385 ![]() |
QUOTE (Richard Trigaux @ Sep 8 2005, 01:20 AM) About freezing waer waves: Yes it matters. Meteorite impacts are common and not very interesting, while a recent volcanic activity would be. Now we think that volcanic activities on Mars started at least 2 billions years ago, eventually had a maximum, but dit not really ended today. Only eruptions are one over 10-40 million years. Mmm...the recent news says that the most recent Mar's volcanic activities was around 1-10 millions years ago...Indeed very recent. Rodolfo |
|
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() |
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 24th April 2024 - 09:36 AM |
RULES AND GUIDELINES Please read the Forum Rules and Guidelines before posting. IMAGE COPYRIGHT |
OPINIONS AND MODERATION Opinions expressed on UnmannedSpaceflight.com are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of UnmannedSpaceflight.com or The Planetary Society. The all-volunteer UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderation team is wholly independent of The Planetary Society. The Planetary Society has no influence over decisions made by the UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderators. |
SUPPORT THE FORUM Unmannedspaceflight.com is funded by the Planetary Society. Please consider supporting our work and many other projects by donating to the Society or becoming a member. |
![]() |