27 May 2008

HiRISE is my Hero

Posted by Ryan Anderson

Another amazing image from HiRISE, this time of the Phoenix lander, heat shield and parachute on the ground:

Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy has a detailed interpretation of what we’re seeing here. What struck me was how much darker the landing site looks compared to its surroundings. The dust on Mars is generally lighter than the rocks underneath, so the dark halo around the lander means that its rockets blew some dust away.