[ad_1]
On dusty, dry and arid Mars, the landscape is austere and bare. No oceans or lakes, no forests, certainly no cities. The result is an almost totally alien world, its scarred surface exposed under an orange sky.
This means that we are entitled to images of Martian orbiters that show us views like nothing we could see on Earth – like the above image of a volcanic plain, marked by impact craters, taken in March by the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars trace gas orbiter.
The area seen here is the Lunae Planum, a transitional region between the northern lowlands and the Tharsis Montes volcanic complex, which is believed to be responsible for lava deposits over much of the area.
Impact craters in the Lunae Planum region. (ESA / Roscosmos / CaSSIS, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)
Images like these can help us better understand processes on Mars. The craters that dot the plain, including the three medium-sized that take center stage, arose after the volcanic surface, excavating material beneath the surface.
This means that we can get a glimpse of the Martian past. The larger craters, for example, show signs of stratification around their edges that could be produced by successive lava flows, at a time when the planet was more volcanically active.
We do not know if Mars is still volcanically active today. For a long time, scientists thought he was as dead as a door nail, but recent evidence suggests that may not be the case.
Studying disturbances in volcanic surfaces can help planetary geologists determine when lava flows occurred, which in turn can help piece together a volcanic history for the planet.
Because we can’t go to a lot of places on Mars – there are currently two active rovers and the Mars InSight fixed lander – orbital imagery is one of the best tools we have for this job.
The main mission of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter is atmospheric research (during which it does a remarkable job), but images like these are the icing on the cake.
You can download the high resolution image from the ESA website.
[ad_2]
Source link