They’re putting a brave face on it, emphasizing the continuing science and the mission’s accomplishments. Barring a “cleaning event” courtesy of a well-placed whirlwind, NASA plans to shut almost everything down on the lander other than the seismometer, which has already captured thousands of marsquakes, and the internal heaters needed to survive the cold Martian nights. And that’s likely to worsen as the Martian winter begins, which will put more dust in the sky and lower the angle of the Sun, reducing the sunlight that’s incident to the panels. In the two years that the lander has been studying the geophysics of Mars from its lonely post on Elysium Planitia, InSight’s twin solar arrays have been collecting dust, and now are so dirty that they’re only making about 500 watt-hours per sol, barely enough to run the science packages on the lander. The team consists of 45 co-investigators from 32 institutions and 10 nations.It looks like it’s soon to be lights out for the Mars InSight lander. The HRSC instrument and science team is led by Principal Investigator Prof. This naturally skull-shaped structure was never seen before. Mars Express imaged many other structures in the region, including "pyramids" and a structure that looks, at least somewhat, like a skull. Sometimes the debris aprons have been covered by later lava flows. They probably consist of a mixture of rocky debris and ice and are the result of landslides. These debris aprons are frequently found in the Cydonia region at the foot of such remnant mounds but are often missing in smaller massifs. The formation also has what geologists call "debris aprons", gently sloping areas surrounding hills or reliefs. Scientists think that this wall has formed via landslides, its entire mass moving downslope. The views reveal an eroded structure probably covered by sand and displaying a massive western wall. Mars Express photographed the "face" structure from different directions. "They not only provide a completely fresh and detailed view of an area famous to fans of space myths worldwide, but also provide an impressive close-up over an area of great interest for planetary geologists, and show once more the high capability of the Mars Express camera." "These images of the Cydonia region on Mars are truly spectacular," said Dr Agustin Chicarro, ESA Mars Express Project Scientist. The probe surveyed a wide area in Cydonia region at the best possible resolution and in 3D. But on 22 July, the atmospheric conditions finally allowed the craft to picture the "face" in unprecedented detail. The craft had tried to image the region from April 2004 to July 2006 but atmospheric dust and haze screened the rocky formations. The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) photos include some of the most spectacular views of the Red Planet ever. Now, the ESA's Mars Express has obtained even more detailed images of the Cydonia region. The satellite surveyed the region again in 2001 and further confirmed the same conclusion. The much more detailed image showed that the structure's resemblance to a face is only remote. The popular speculations about the possible alien origin of the structure have been undermined in April 1998 when NASA's Mars Global Surveyor surveyed the region again. The picture was taken on July 25 from a range of 1873 kilometers (1162 miles)." The speckled appearance of the image is due to bit errors, emphasized by enlargement of the photo. "The feature is 1.5 kilometers (one mile) across, with the sun angle at approximately 20 degrees. "The huge rock formation in the center, which resembles a human head, is formed by shadows giving the illusion of eyes, nose and mouth," said the original NASA press release. This transition zone is characterized by wide, debris-filled valleys and isolated remnant mounds of various shapes and sizes.Īlthough NASA scientists had interpreted the "face" image as an optical illusion caused by the illumination angle of the Sun, the formation's surface morphology and the resulting shadows, the photo has triggered numerous speculations about its supposed artificial origin. The rocky formation resembling a human head is located in the Cydonia region in the Arabia Terra - a transition zone between the southern highlands and the northern plains of Mars (see the image of Mars below). On 25 July 1976, NASA's Viking 1 orbiter took one of the most famous images from Mars: the so-called Face on Mars.
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