While I was studying that image, I thought to myself, "Nick's gonna have a field day with this". I'd like to hear more about your impressions of it.
One thing I paid attention to is trying to determine if there's a source for the dark material/staining/whatever. Theories have described dark material swept out when deposits of ice melt, but I can't see any distinct source for it. The way the dark areas feather out at the top sent me to the image description to verify that, yes, downhill is toward the bottom of the image. There's no point source that I can find; the dark areas seem to "just be there".
The description suggests that the dark areas are dark only in relation to a "whitish-blue" frost on the walls of the crater. Relative brightness is a common problem with enhanced images, so that's credible to me. In that interpretation, the dark areas represent the natural appearance of the rock, uncovered from beneath frost.
I think that this image would be a good candidate for repeated imaging at different times of the sol, to get a handle on that theory.
In the meantime, please expound some more on how the image "seals the story of gully formation through lubricated avalanches."
Space/Science » in reply to re: Gullies from MRO - just what I was waiting for
I suspected as much
The whole thread (36 posts)
- Gullies from MRO (1,4 MB) and many other pictures
- Anybody got a high-def TV?
- The full scale jpeg image is 42.5 MB.
- Truly amazing
- re: Gullies from MRO - just what I was waiting for