Comments (32)

1. Thanny

   I wonder how long Percival Lowell would be disappointed if he had access to these kinds of pictures of Mars.

   Sure, no Martian civilization, but wow.

   November 8, 2009 at 10:34 pm
2. StevoR

   Superluminous! (ie. beyond mere brilliance.) I’m blown away by these – Thanks BA.

   The sense of texture I get from there is overwhelming, it’s like you can almost run your fingers across the landscape and feel the sand, the knobbly rocks, the smooth, slick ice, the pits and hollows and craters. Very tactile, very spectacular – these would make a marvellous art exhibition. Awe inspiring. 8)

   My personal favourite is #7 the Pathfinder one which like the Phoenix one powerfully reminds me of the SF story ‘Gentle Into the Orange night’ that I wrote a decade or so ago.

   I posted that on the HiRISE spots Phoenix thread :

   http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/11/04/hirise-spots-phoenix-once-again/

   See post # 21 there if anyone wishes to read it.

   November 8, 2009 at 10:41 pm
3. Messier TidyUpper

   @ 1. Thanny Says:

   “I wonder how long Percival Lowell would be disappointed if he had access to these kinds of pictures of Mars.”

   Lowell may be disappointed by the lack of intelligent Martians but from the time just afterwards (1898 onwards) those who read HG Wells ‘War of the Worlds’ (or saw the movies and even Musical derived from it) might be pretty relieved!

   ***

   “No one would have dreamed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.”
   - Opening sentence of HG. Wells novel ‘War of the Worlds’, 1898.

   “Nor was it generally understood that since Mars is older than our Earth, … it necessarily follows that it is not only more distant from life’s beginning but nearer its end.” – Page 4, ‘The War of the Worlds’ H.G. Wells, 1898, Aerie books 1987 for my edition.

   [Actually, we know today that Mars & Earth are the same age - Well's was using an old idea of Kant's Nebular hypotheis for explaining our solar systems evolution - Ed.]

   “The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, he said. The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one! But still they come!”
   - Lines from Jeff Wayne’s Musical version of ‘War of the Worlds’, first performed 1978.

   [Actually, we now know the odds against are many orders of magnitude higher - try a couple of billion trillion more like! Unless, that is those Martians are derived from us in the distant future when that planet has been terraformed and colonised... - Ed.]

   November 8, 2009 at 10:51 pm
4. Spectroscope

   Its also well worth checking out the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter websites via :

   NASA -> http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/main/index.html

   JPL -> http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/

   & Wikipedia -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Reconnaissance_Orbiter

   for more info, news and photos MRO, HiRise & Mars generally~wise.

   November 8, 2009 at 11:49 pm
5. csrster

   Big Mars! Big as the Full Moon!
   

   November 9, 2009 at 12:26 am
6. bassmanpete

   That first photo is really your tattoo, isn’t it? Go on, admit it!

   November 9, 2009 at 1:08 am
7. Flying sardines

   Technically csrster, (5) its bigger.

   Earth’s Moon is 3,476 km diameter while Mars is 6,794 km diameter.

   Mars is also much more massive hence an atmosphere exists on Mars but not our Moon. Sadly, Mars is still too small to be a truly earth-like planet with plate tectonics, a planetary magnetuic field, a thick atmosphere etc .. Which is probably why it never could sustain life although the jury’s still out there. Mars is also the smallest of the terrestrial (or rocky) planets – unless you count Pluto or Ceres!

   November 9, 2009 at 1:08 am
8. Dr. Morbius

   @Flying sardines
   Mercury is the smallest terrestrial planet.

   November 9, 2009 at 1:24 am
9. Richard Hoagland

   No Martian civilization?

   Look at picture 12. It clearly shows a large Martian road running down the left hand side of the picture, and a large castle-like structure in the centre. NASA have clearly airbrushed out all the little Martian trucks on the highway.

   It’s there if you *want* to see it, people!

   (BTW, in case anyone is even slightly wondering, no, I’m not *really* Richard Hoagland. That was a joke… ;o) )

   November 9, 2009 at 1:52 am
10. Dotan Cohen

    Don’t forget that on August 27 Mars will be as big as the full moon! This is the shot I got of it this year:
    http://dotancohen.com/images/individual_pages/august27.jpg

    November 9, 2009 at 2:59 am
11. Keith (the first one)

    I like them because they show Mars to be a real planet, with all sorts of variation over its surface. It’s much better than the typical Sci-Fi image of a planet with precisely one climate and type of terrain.

    (Hmmm. Terrain is an Earth word, right? Marain perhaps?)

    November 9, 2009 at 3:57 am
12. Plutonium being from Pluto

    @ 8 Keith (the first one*) :

    Hmmm. Terrain is an Earth word, right? Marain perhaps?)

    Not really, *terrain* is for all terrain everywhere even here on Pluto. Terrain applies to ground or surface & usually has a descriptive term preceding it eg. the terrain is flat, undulating, mountainous, swampy, urban, forest, tundra, icefield, volcanic, etc ..

    The word you may be thinking of here is *Terran* which means Earth or land or ground. (eg. Terra firma, Terra Australis (old name for Oz), subterrean etc ..) Not sure exactly how these words are related (Latin cognates or something from the same root? Certainly sound similar.) but there is a key difference in their meaning. Science Fiction often uses ‘Terra’ for Earth and ‘Terran’ for Earthlings / Earthicans. (Not ‘Futurama’ though, well spluh! )

    You’ll find no terra or terrans (yet!) on Mars but there’s terrain aplenty! Incidentally, I agree its great to see the variety in Martian terrains there. Of course, its all cold desert … For now.

    —–

    * Keith is one of the First Ones? As in the most ancient immortal aliens from ‘Babylon 5′?
    A-w-e-s-o-m-e! What were the Shadows and Vorlons like when they were young? Ever meet Lorien? (Yes we get ‘Babylon-5′ out on Pluto! )

    November 9, 2009 at 5:02 am
13. Frode

    Amazing pictures. I just finished the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, and these pictures makes it easier to sympathize with the Red movement. But who wouldn’t want to sail the Hellas Sea..!

    November 9, 2009 at 5:14 am
14. MarkW

    Flying Sardines: Did Mercury get thrown out of the Terrestrial Planets club then?

    November 9, 2009 at 5:55 am
15. Adrian Morgan

    A brief commentary on some of my personal favourites.

    Number six (m06_73382640.jpg). Wow does that look a rich chocolate cake. I hope it comes with coffee.

    Number eleven (m11_02211420.jpg). I am imagining this as a jigsaw puzzle because I am evil.

    Number sixteen (m16_31130940.jpg). No silly remarks; just a great picture.

    Number twenty-three (m23_40782015.jpg). Also a great picture, though not as “uniquely Martian”.

    Number twenty-four (m24_71932640.jpg). More chocolate. Turns out mars bars really are what they say they are.

    Number thirty-five (m35_35381230.jpg). Finally, the proof you’ve been lying to us. Of course there are trees on Mars; we can see the shadow of their branches.

    November 9, 2009 at 6:24 am
16. Just me

    @12: Number eleven (m11_02211420.jpg). I am imagining this as a jigsaw puzzle because I am evil.

    Semi-seriously—the NASA/MRO/HiRISE people should hook up w/ some puzzle makers and sell jigsaw puzzles of these images (as a non-profit venture, of course). They’d make for some fantastic brain-exploding puzzles, as well as get kids (and grown-ups!!!) even more interested & excited about Mars and science.

    November 9, 2009 at 7:16 am
17. Jessica

    Absolutely stunning images, they’d be worth printing out to decorate my office at home! What really grabs me is how well these illustrate that, as you’ve said before, Mars is a WORLD. It is an alien place and we’ve only started discovering it. I can’t wait for humans to go there!

    Do you know of any posters that have been made illustrating where all these are on Mars? I may just make one myself (yay Photoshop!). I saw they had the Google Mars links but those weren’t terribly helpful. Hmm.

    November 9, 2009 at 7:27 am
18. Kevin

    Totally awesome. It’s completely other-worldly, the surface is so weird compared to Earth, but it’s in a new, magnificent way.

    November 9, 2009 at 7:33 am
19. Gary Ansorge

    6. bassmanpete Says:

    The texture DOES look remarkably like skin with goose bumps and the dark areas COULD be ink.

    OMG! PHIL is a MARTIAN!!!

    Great pics.

    GAry 7

    November 9, 2009 at 7:37 am
20. Andy Beaton

    Since I’m too late to make the Big As The Full Moon joke, I’ll just observe that the Crescent Dune that looks like a jellyfish is amazingly cool.

    November 9, 2009 at 7:48 am
21. Megan

    These are absolutely stunning. They have such an artistic appeal to them. Jessica, I agree with you that they are perfect for printing out and framing to decorate your office with. I want to do the same. If you are interested in the idea of humans colonizing Mars, you may want to watch a panel called “Are we bound for space” with Chris McKay, Chris Hadfield, Robert Richards, Donna Shirley, Lawrence Krauss, and Karl Schroeder at the Quantum to Cosmos festival:
    http://www.q2cfestival.com/play.php?lecture_id=8011 – it explores how/why/if we will colonize Mars – very exciting topic and discussion.

    November 9, 2009 at 8:09 am
22. Flying sardines

    @ 8. Dr. Morbius Says:

    @Flying sardines Mercury is the smallest terrestrial planet.

    D’oh! Of course it is! Mea culpa, I forgot all about Mercury. What a brainfade. I meant Mars is the second smallest. After Mercury and not counting Eris, Pluto, Makemake, Haumea, Sedna and Ceres. (Which BTW. are all arguably “planets” by the saner non-IAU definition.*)

    Unless the IAU has just decided to kick Mercury off the planets list now too?

    Or unless the Sun’s transition to orange giant (swelling out large enough to devour Mercury and extend halfway to Venus) has taken place wa-aay ahead of schedule! Yikes!

    _______________

    * This saner non-IAU definition being simply that a “planet” is

    1) rounded through its own gravity thus not an asteroid or comet,
    2) never shining directly by nuclear fusing thus not a star or brown dwarf
    &
    3) not directly orbiting another planet thus not a moon.

    Off topic & all but just thought I’d mention it.

    November 9, 2009 at 8:46 am
23. Romeo Vitelli

    Pareidolia Central

    Not only have I spotted Jesus, Elvis, and God, I think I see four of the Seven Dwarfs.

    November 9, 2009 at 10:36 am
24. Just me

    @ 17

    Hey, the comment numbers got changed around! So, I need to adjust my #17 comment to the adjusted numbers, in which case, my @12 reference should read “@15″, although, I imagine anyone paying attention would have figured that out without my little explanation here. There are some pretty bright BABlogees here!

    @ 23 (unless the numbers change again):
    2) never shining directly by nuclear fusing thus not a star or brown dwarf

    I just saw a bit of a craptacular sci-fi movie on tv the other night, involving the peril Earth faces after the moon is struck by—get this—a brown dwarf!! That premise and everything that follows deserves Phil’s famous “The stupid, it burns!!” award.

    Sorry, also off-topic, but I had to say it.

    November 9, 2009 at 12:22 pm
25. Owen

    Holy heck, that was just incredible! I’m just sitting here with my jaw on the floor. Thanks for that Phil. And I was so happy until I made the mistake of starting to read the comments on that page. I really should know better.

    But all I could think while looking at the photos was how desperately much I’d like to walk across one of those landscapes. Seeing Opportunities tracks in the sand in that one photo? That didn’t ruin the landscape, it connected me. Gave me a sense that I/we in one small way have been there. Amazing stuff.

    November 9, 2009 at 6:19 pm
26. tracer

    I would make a lousy planetary geologist.

    Every time I look at a picture of a crater, it at first looks not like a depression lit from one direction, but like a BUMP lit from the opposite direction. I have to stare and stare and stare in hope that the picture will “pop in” and look like the dent in the surface it really is.

    It took me 15 minutes to see that picture of Victoria Crater as a CRATER instead of a raised area of the landscape. And then after it finally popped into view, I lost it again.

    I swear, I need 3-D glasses for these things.

    November 9, 2009 at 7:34 pm
27. Flying sardines

    @ Just me :

    I just saw a bit of a craptacular sci-fi movie on tv the other night, involving the peril Earth faces after the moon is struck by—get this—a brown dwarf!! That premise and everything that follows deserves Phil’s famous “The stupid, it burns!!” award.

    I’m pretty sure I recall the BA blogging on that here too – incl. giving it the “teh stoopid it burns” signs. Maybe even a few posts on it.

    November 10, 2009 at 12:20 am
28. JB of Brisbane

    Wow! At this resolution it really does look like a dunescape, rather than someone’s abs with a radical henna tattoo.

    November 10, 2009 at 12:30 am