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MEX VMC - Back on, and online!
djellison
post Aug 22 2008, 01:58 PM
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I heard about this 24 hours ago, and couldn't believe it - this is EXACTLY what has been missing from ESA. MASSIVE kudos to the ESOC MEX flight ops team for doing it

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/VMC/index.html

The last time I wrote a post and hit 'submit' at UMSF with a smile this big on my face, was when Oppy successfully got out of Purgatory.
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ormstont
post Sep 5 2008, 05:53 PM
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Just to put my two cents in, you're right that the "object" fades a lot towards the end of the observation. It could well be that we're seeing something like the face on Mars - just a combination of light and shadow that looks like something we want to see. Nonetheless there aren't any major features I can see on the Mars map that would give rise to such a large flare/shadow. In ustrax's plot the crater identified is (I believe from looking at the Celestia file) Copernicus.

Using Ian Musgrave's Registax techniques he describes here http://astroblogger.blogspot.com/2008/08/w...-over-mars.html, combined with ugordon's colour processing script, I wonder if it's possible to clean up the image and see if we can place it more precisely on a map of Mars. Would be great to see what more it could teach us!

P.S. Top theories so far include trick of the light, cloud or (a long shot, but a cool one) an impact event plume...


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ustrax
post Sep 6 2008, 10:12 AM
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dear Ormstont, I am sorry to be a bit limited in terms of software for the moment but if that carter is indeed Copernicus then, looking at Google Mars, I see a bright patch to the right of the crater (marked) that could be the "culprit"...assuming that I am getting the right orientation and scale... wink.gif
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ugordan
post Sep 6 2008, 07:02 PM
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It definitely appears to be atmospheric as the shadow moves below it (click to enlarge):


It seems to have dissipated at the end. Based on the rough 100 km size estimate I get a height in excess of 100 km (around 110 km, but the uncertainty is rather large) if my back-of-the-envelope calculation is right using this 3x magnified bit:


If it's an ordinary cloud, what would make it so circular at that altitude and would it dissipate quickly in sunlight? If it's an impact plume, wouldn't we expect a darker color and much lower and more persistent plume?


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Juramike
post Sep 6 2008, 07:40 PM
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Nice animation, Gordan!

As you've shown, the shadow seems much longer in the earliest images, just what you'd expect as the sun peeped up over the horizon.

-Mike


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Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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Posts in this topic
- djellison   MEX VMC - Back on, and online!   Aug 22 2008, 01:58 PM
- - djellison   FWIW - I've attempted to debayer a tiny piece ...   Aug 22 2008, 02:57 PM
- - djellison   I THINK I got a bit cleverer in making selections ...   Aug 22 2008, 03:20 PM
|- - ugordan   Wow, great work, Doug. My method of making a Bayer...   Aug 22 2008, 03:25 PM
|- - Tman   QUOTE (ugordan @ Aug 22 2008, 05:25 PM) H...   Aug 22 2008, 03:46 PM
- - Stu   ESA often get a hard time here for what they do - ...   Aug 22 2008, 03:23 PM
- - PDP8E   I always though that the Lunar Prospector team was...   Aug 22 2008, 03:24 PM
|- - djellison   QUOTE (PDP8E @ Aug 22 2008, 04:24 PM) I a...   Aug 22 2008, 03:32 PM
- - djellison   Oh boy oh boy http://esamultimedia.esa.int/multi...   Aug 22 2008, 04:06 PM
|- - ugordan   I'm gonna give it a go at writing an app for a...   Aug 22 2008, 04:10 PM
|- - Juramike   Even better, it looks like they'd like submiss...   Aug 22 2008, 04:37 PM
|- - tedstryk   QUOTE (Juramike @ Aug 22 2008, 04:37 PM) ...   Aug 22 2008, 06:45 PM
|- - ugordan   Nice catch, Tman! Looks like clouds to me, rot...   Aug 22 2008, 07:06 PM
- - Paolo Amoroso   Does the Picasa logo on VMC images imply that they...   Aug 22 2008, 04:42 PM
|- - ugordan   I've got a basic app going, it performs a rudi...   Aug 22 2008, 06:00 PM
||- - djellison   QUOTE (ugordan @ Aug 22 2008, 07:00 PM) W...   Aug 22 2008, 08:31 PM
||- - ugordan   To be honest, coding that particular bit was easy....   Aug 22 2008, 09:34 PM
||- - slinted   Kudos to the ESA and MEX teams! This is an ex...   Aug 22 2008, 11:44 PM
|- - Paolo Amoroso   QUOTE (Paolo Amoroso @ Aug 22 2008, 06:42...   Aug 22 2008, 06:33 PM
- - Tman   Very nice Gordan! What could that illuminated...   Aug 22 2008, 06:27 PM
- - Paolo Amoroso   Are you able to use the Celestia scripts? I downlo...   Aug 22 2008, 06:36 PM
|- - Astro0   QUOTE (Paolo Amoroso @ Aug 23 2008, 04:36...   Aug 23 2008, 03:57 AM
|- - Paolo Amoroso   QUOTE (Astro0 @ Aug 23 2008, 05:57 AM) I ...   Aug 23 2008, 12:27 PM
|- - ugordan   A dodgy first version of the tool: It takes an in...   Aug 23 2008, 02:26 PM
|- - Paolo Amoroso   QUOTE (Paolo Amoroso @ Aug 23 2008, 02:27...   Aug 23 2008, 02:34 PM
|- - Astro0   Paolo, see if you can download Celestia 1.5.0. It ...   Aug 23 2008, 11:32 PM
|- - Paolo Amoroso   QUOTE (Astro0 @ Aug 24 2008, 01:32 AM) Pa...   Aug 24 2008, 02:35 PM
- - Stu   Hmmm... why do the words "Kids", "n...   Aug 22 2008, 09:45 PM
- - djellison   I was thinking 'pig' and err...'poo...   Aug 22 2008, 10:00 PM
- - jekbradbury   For those who would rather not manually run each o...   Aug 24 2008, 02:28 AM
- - Tman   The VMC public gallery has opened http://www.esa.i...   Aug 26 2008, 07:16 PM
- - Stu   In advance of him joining UMSF I've been asked...   Aug 27 2008, 04:13 PM
- - ormstont   Thanks to Stu for passing on the message, I'm ...   Aug 27 2008, 07:18 PM
|- - Paolo Amoroso   QUOTE (ormstont @ Aug 27 2008, 09:18 PM) ...   Aug 28 2008, 11:29 AM
- - imipak   I'm only an "armchair UMSFer", with ...   Aug 27 2008, 09:10 PM
- - Juramike   Here is an GIF animation I made from a sequence of...   Aug 28 2008, 04:57 AM
- - ormstont   Phobos and Deimos would both be fun targets, the b...   Aug 28 2008, 02:15 PM
- - chiron   Hi everybody I worked the last days on a program ...   Aug 29 2008, 11:07 AM
|- - tedstryk   I had a go at the July 29, 2008 dataset. Man, thi...   Aug 29 2008, 02:03 PM
- - ormstont   Tough stuff to work with indeed makes it all the ...   Aug 29 2008, 05:41 PM
|- - tedstryk   Thanks! I am headed out on vacation, but I wi...   Aug 29 2008, 06:42 PM
- - Juramike   Assembled mosaic from June 22, 2008 series of imag...   Aug 30 2008, 02:24 AM
- - Juramike   Handy little guide and detailed explanation of the...   Aug 30 2008, 03:56 AM
- - JTN   QUOTE (Juramike @ Aug 30 2008, 04:56 AM) ...   Aug 30 2008, 04:15 PM
- - Paolo Amoroso   It would be useful for the VMC site to have an RSS...   Aug 31 2008, 01:49 PM
- - ormstont   Sorry for being a bit quiet - as you can probably ...   Sep 4 2008, 03:56 PM
|- - Paolo Amoroso   QUOTE (ormstont @ Sep 4 2008, 05:56 PM) I...   Sep 5 2008, 03:11 PM
- - Stu   re your "mystery object"... Perhaps...?   Sep 4 2008, 06:43 PM
- - ormstont   Definitely hoping for Martians (then we'd have...   Sep 5 2008, 11:26 AM
- - ormstont   Ok...image gallery is online on the website, along...   Sep 5 2008, 02:54 PM
- - djellison   That is unusual. At first I thought it might be a...   Sep 5 2008, 03:10 PM
- - Stu   I may be wrong (probably am) but think this might ...   Sep 5 2008, 03:17 PM
- - remcook   cool, looks like a volcano eruption it's not ...   Sep 5 2008, 03:40 PM
|- - ustrax   I've been far away for so long that I've b...   Sep 5 2008, 03:55 PM
|- - Paolo Amoroso   QUOTE (ustrax @ Sep 5 2008, 05:55 PM) [.....   Sep 5 2008, 04:09 PM
|- - ustrax   In this specific image it looks to me that the sha...   Sep 5 2008, 05:02 PM
- - Stu   How about a meteoroid impact that sent up a big du...   Sep 5 2008, 03:57 PM
|- - ustrax   I'm here... This is what I mean: Looks to...   Sep 5 2008, 04:06 PM
- - ormstont   Just to put my two cents in, you're right that...   Sep 5 2008, 05:53 PM
|- - ustrax   dear Ormstont, I am sorry to be a bit limited in t...   Sep 6 2008, 10:12 AM
|- - ugordan   It definitely appears to be atmospheric as the sha...   Sep 6 2008, 07:02 PM
|- - Juramike   Nice animation, Gordan! As you've shown, ...   Sep 6 2008, 07:40 PM
|- - ustrax   QUOTE (ugordan @ Sep 6 2008, 08:02 PM) It...   Sep 6 2008, 08:11 PM
||- - ugordan   QUOTE (ustrax @ Sep 6 2008, 10:11 PM) the...   Sep 6 2008, 08:43 PM
||- - TheChemist   QUOTE (ugordan @ Sep 6 2008, 11:43 PM) Yo...   Sep 6 2008, 08:47 PM
||- - ustrax   QUOTE (TheChemist @ Sep 6 2008, 09:47 PM)...   Sep 6 2008, 09:21 PM
||- - ugordan   QUOTE (ustrax @ Sep 6 2008, 11:21 PM) Now...   Sep 6 2008, 09:23 PM
||- - ustrax   QUOTE (ugordan @ Sep 6 2008, 10:23 PM) Co...   Sep 6 2008, 09:27 PM
|- - Paolo Amoroso   QUOTE (ugordan @ Sep 6 2008, 09:02 PM) It...   Sep 6 2008, 08:12 PM
||- - Paolo Amoroso   QUOTE (Paolo Amoroso @ Sep 6 2008, 10:12 ...   Sep 7 2008, 02:40 PM
||- - ugordan   Here's a new version of VMC2RGB, this time imp...   Sep 8 2008, 09:50 PM
|- - siravan   QUOTE (ugordan @ Sep 6 2008, 02:02 PM) Ba...   Sep 6 2008, 11:08 PM
|- - ugordan   Yep, it appears I messed up the calculation of (at...   Sep 6 2008, 11:39 PM
- - stevesliva   Does fog cast a shadow? Would it be forming above...   Sep 8 2008, 10:18 PM
- - ormstont   Ok...more info on our strange cloud...we've go...   Sep 11 2008, 10:08 AM
- - remcook   yes, I think 80 km is a normal altitude for these ...   Sep 11 2008, 11:41 AM
- - ormstont   Wow...you beat me to posting the link I've ju...   Sep 11 2008, 01:45 PM
- - elakdawalla   I'd like to include one of the VMC crescent im...   Sep 12 2008, 09:38 PM
|- - ugordan   All 2008 crescents indeed appear to be severely ov...   Sep 12 2008, 11:36 PM
- - ormstont   So, looks like our other MEX instrument teams are ...   Sep 13 2008, 07:20 PM
|- - ugordan   I'd be interested in knowing what the difficul...   Sep 13 2008, 07:24 PM
- - ormstont   Well, part of the difficulty is that we have no wa...   Sep 13 2008, 08:23 PM
|- - ugordan   QUOTE (ormstont @ Sep 13 2008, 10:23 PM) ...   Sep 13 2008, 08:41 PM
|- - Tman   QUOTE (ugordan @ Sep 13 2008, 10:41 PM) A...   Sep 13 2008, 10:27 PM
|- - Paolo Amoroso   QUOTE (ugordan @ Sep 13 2008, 10:41 PM) I...   Sep 14 2008, 09:54 AM
- - ormstont   Ok, get what you're going for there - the only...   Sep 14 2008, 11:21 AM
|- - ugordan   I don't personally think a dark frame would be...   Sep 14 2008, 05:43 PM
- - jekbradbury   I am trying to organize the images by position in ...   Sep 14 2008, 08:57 PM
- - ormstont   QUOTE (ugordan @ Sep 14 2008, 07:43 PM) T...   Sep 15 2008, 08:06 AM
- - jekbradbury   That was exactly what I was looking for. Taking i...   Sep 16 2008, 01:56 AM
- - Juramike   I finally downloaded Celestia (slaps head, why did...   Sep 16 2008, 04:21 AM
- - Juramike   Interesting how both the "mystery cloud...   Sep 16 2008, 04:30 AM
- - ormstont   QUOTE (jekbradbury @ Sep 16 2008, 03:56 A...   Sep 16 2008, 08:12 AM
- - Juramike   It's baaaack! Another cloud sequence at s...   Sep 17 2008, 04:43 AM
- - ormstont   Interesting that we might have a cloud factory on ...   Sep 17 2008, 09:59 AM
- - ormstont   Just a quick plug - got some more lovely shots fro...   Sep 17 2008, 02:42 PM
- - Juramike   The thing that's been puzzling me is the appea...   Sep 17 2008, 02:51 PM
- - djellison   I love this camera.   Sep 17 2008, 03:07 PM
- - Juramike   Here is an attempted mosaic of the "relativel...   Sep 18 2008, 04:31 AM
- - Juramike   There are few guarantees in life... but finding cl...   Sep 20 2008, 04:01 AM
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