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PIA21579: South Polar Spiral
This hill in the South Polar layered deposits has influenced the erosion of the icy layers as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
 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_049115_0955 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA21579.tif (5.191 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA21579.jpg (1.259 MB)  

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This hill in the South Polar layered deposits has influenced the erosion of the icy layers as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The hill protects the layers from erosion, so the pattern of erosion to the sides of the hill forms a beautiful spiral pattern.

The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 49.7 centimeters (19.6 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 149 centimeters (58.6 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.

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 Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

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

Image Addition Date:
2017-04-06