ESA: Εντυπωσιακές εικόνες του εδάφους στον Άρη από το Mars Express

“Η φύση είναι ο καλύτερος γλύπτης” τονίζει σε ανάρτηση της στα κοινωνικά δίκτυα η Ευρωπαϊκή Διαστημική Υπηρεσία (ESA) η οποία δημοσίευσε τέσσερις φωτογραφίες που ελήφθησαν από τον δορυφόρο Mars Express, που βρίσκεται σε τροχιά γύρω από τον “κόκκινο” πλανήτη, και δείχνουν το ανάγλυφο που έχει σμιλέψει η φύση στο έδαφος του.

 

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Nature is a powerful sculptor 🔴 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Features on Mars often trick the eye. It can be difficult to tell if the ground has risen up towards you, or dropped away. This is a common phenomenon with impact craters especially, and is aptly named the ‘crater/dome illusion’; in some images, craters appear to be large domes arching up towards the viewer – but look again, and they instead become a depression in the surrounding terrain, as expected. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Such a phenomenon is at play in this image from Mars Express, which shows part of Tempe Fossae, a series of faults that cuts across the region of Tempe Terra in Mars’ northern highlands. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Upon first glance, it is difficult to tell if ground is rising up, sinking down, or a mix of both. The landscape here is scratched, scored, and wrinkled: ridges slice across the frame, interspersed with the odd impact crater, and the entire region is full of cliffs and chasms. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The terrain here belongs to the volcanic Tharsis province, also known as Tharsis rise, which is located close to the planet equator, at the boundary between low plains in the Northern hemisphere and highlands in the South, and displays a complex geology originating from the processes involved in its formation. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Tempe Fossae is a great example of terrain featuring two key martian features: grabens and horsts. In a way, these are opposites of one another – grabens are slices of ground that have dropped down between two roughly parallel faults, while horsts are ground that has been uplifted between faults. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Go to esa.int to learn more. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 📸 @europeanspaceagency/ @germanaerospacecenter/ @fu_berlin; @creativecommons CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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