Photo: NASA/JPL/UArizona
As part of our coverage of images from Mars sent back over the years by the HiRISE camera orbiting the planet, we’ve seen now and then some very strangely colored instances of the alien world. Most of the time, the colors were not indigenous to Mars, but were added by filters and whatnot as a means for scientists to see beyond what the naked eye can distinguish.
Most of the images HiRISE sent back, and released by NASA and the University of Arizona, the ones who operate the hardware, come in black and white, and occasionally in that reddish hue we’ve all come to associate with the neighboring planet.
From time to time though, strange colors seem to play on the surface, thanks to whatever camera trick is applied by scientists. In this photo, for instance, we’re treated with tones of grey, blue and sparkly purple.
The image shows an edge of something called the Milankovic Crater, the remnant of an old impact, 118 km (73 miles) in diameter. We’re told we’re looking at “a thick deposit of sediment that covers a layer rich in ice,” but the ice is “not obvious unless you look in color.”
Normally, RGB images would show the ice in bright white and the surroundings in rusty red, but this time, to make the ice even more visible, infrared-red-blue was used, turning the ice bluish-purple and the surroundings yellowish-grey.
According to scientists, in this particular place the “ice-rich material is most visible when the cliff is oriented east-west and is shielded from the sun as it arcs through the sky to the south.”
Having the option of seeing Martian locations through various filters allows scientists to better understand what they’re looking at, and eventually plan for future missions to the Red Planet.
From time to time though, strange colors seem to play on the surface, thanks to whatever camera trick is applied by scientists. In this photo, for instance, we’re treated with tones of grey, blue and sparkly purple.
The image shows an edge of something called the Milankovic Crater, the remnant of an old impact, 118 km (73 miles) in diameter. We’re told we’re looking at “a thick deposit of sediment that covers a layer rich in ice,” but the ice is “not obvious unless you look in color.”
Normally, RGB images would show the ice in bright white and the surroundings in rusty red, but this time, to make the ice even more visible, infrared-red-blue was used, turning the ice bluish-purple and the surroundings yellowish-grey.
According to scientists, in this particular place the “ice-rich material is most visible when the cliff is oriented east-west and is shielded from the sun as it arcs through the sky to the south.”
Having the option of seeing Martian locations through various filters allows scientists to better understand what they’re looking at, and eventually plan for future missions to the Red Planet.
Google News