PIA20757: Numerous Seasonal 'Lineae' on Coprates Montes, Mars
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
 Spacecraft:  Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
 Instrument:  HiRISE
 Product Size:  1581 x 1283 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  University of Arizona/HiRISE-LPL
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA20757.tif (1.915 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA20757.jpg (217.1 kB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

The white arrows indicate locations in this scene where numerous seasonal dark streaks have been identified in the Coprates Montes area of Mars' Valles Marineris by repeated observations from orbit.

The streaks, called recurring slope lineae or RSL, extend downslope during a warm season, fade in the colder part of the year, and repeat the process the next Martian year. They are regarded as the strongest evidence for the possibility of liquid water on the surface of modern Mars.

This oblique perspective for this view uses a three-dimensional terrain model derived from a stereo pair of observations by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The scene covers an area approximately 1.6 miles (2.5 kilometers) wide.

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Image Addition Date:
2016-07-07