PIA23530: Enigmatic Canyon Dunes
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
 Spacecraft:  Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
 Instrument:  HiRISE
 Product Size:  2880 x 1800 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  University of Arizona/HiRISE-LPL
 Other  
Information: 
Other products from ESP_052737_1645
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA23530.tif (4.803 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA23530.jpg (691 kB)

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Map Projected Browse Image
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This image shows a cross-section of ancient canyon systems in east Coprates Chasma, and displays several orders and generations of wind-driven dunes and ripples, also called bedforms. Some areas display more modern bedforms, often termed mega-ripples, which have likely been active over long timescales and have migrated in the recent past.

Other areas along the canyon wall have larger bedforms that show a very different appearance. Although they have a spacing that would make them similar to typical Martian sand dunes, many display superposed craters, indicating they have not migrated for a very long time, possibly hundreds of thousands of years.

The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. (The original image scale is 53.0 centimeters [20.9 inches] per pixel [with 2 x 2 binning]; objects on the order of 159 centimeters [62.6 inches] across are resolved.) North is up.

This is a stereo pair with PSP_009143_1645.

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

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Image Addition Date:
2019-10-21