6 November 2009

Mars Art: Mind-blowing Swiss Cheese

Posted by Ryan Anderson

First of all, a reminder to go vote on my article about MSL, which is a finalist in the scientificblogging.com science writing competition.

Ok, done? Good. I wanted you to do that before I showed you this image because it may very well break your brain. This is a HiRISE image of the so-called “swiss cheese” terrain at the south pole of mars. The terrain is formed by the sublimation of CO2 ice, which forms weird rounded pits. Yes, the round things in this picture are pits.The smooth parts are mesas and the illumination is from the lower right. Pictures like this always make my brain hurt because for some reason I want to see the round depressions as bulges! And if you think this is bad, try watching a scientific presentation with dozens of pictures like this, with varying orientations and illumination angles. I rarely get anything out of Mars south pole talks because my brain is so busy struggling to see the images properly.

ESP_014379_0925

Believe it or not, illumination is from the lower right in this image. Click the image to go to the HiRISE page and check out the full sized versions.