PDS logoPlanetary Data System
PDS Information
Find a Node - Use these links to navigate to any of the 8 publicly accessible PDS Nodes.

This bar indicates that you are within the PDS enterprise which includes 6 science discipline nodes and 2 support nodes which are overseen by the Project Management Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Each node is led by an expert in the subject discipline, supported by an advisory group of other practitioners of that discipline, and subject to selection and approval under a regular NASA Research Announcement.
Click here to return to the Photojournal Home Page Click here to view a list of Photojournal Image Galleries Photojournal_inner_header
Latest Images  |  Spacecraft & Technology  |  Animations  |  Space Images App  |  Feedback  |  Photojournal Search  

PIA14459: Erosion Features near the South Pole of Mars
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows erosional features formed by seasonal frost near the south pole of Mars. During the winter, high latitudes on Mars build up deposits of carbon dioxide frost that can be several feet thick.
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) 
 Spacecraft:  Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
 Instrument:  HiRISE 
 Product Size:  2560 x 1920 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  University of Arizona/HiRISE-LPL 
 Other  
Information: 		 Other products from image ESP_022998_0980 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA14459.tif (14.76 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA14459.jpg (1.003 MB)  

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:

This HiRISE image shows erosional features formed by seasonal frost near the south pole of Mars.

During the winter, high latitudes (near the pole) on Mars build up deposits of carbon dioxide frost that can be several feet thick. In the spring these sublimate and turn back into gas. The gas sublimating at the bottom of the frost can move the underlying dust and even erode channels in it.

These channels form a variety of structures; examples like those at this site have been nicknamed "spiders" because many channels converge, giving a many-armed, spidery appearance.

See PIA14460 for an anaglyph of this image.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.

Originally released July 13, 2011

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

Image Addition Date:
2011-07-15