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  

PIA22588: Clays in the Eridania Basin
 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_055392_1510
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA22588.tif (15.56 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA22588.jpg (671.1 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:

Click here for larger image of PIA22588
Map Projected Browse Image
Click on image for larger version

This colorful image, acquired on May 21, 2018 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows clays within the Eridania basin region. Many scientists using orbital data have proposed that a large lake may have once existed here during the Late Noachian through Early Hesperian time periods, and then much of the water drained out to the north via Ma'adim Vallis.

Understanding where and what kind of clay exists within this region using CRISM data can help scientists learn more about how long the postulated lake existed and the water chemistry within the lake.

The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 55.3 centimeters (21.6 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 166 centimeters (65.4 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.

This is a stereo pair with PSP_010888_1510.

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., 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/Univ. of Arizona

Image Addition Date:
2018-07-09