Latest news with #ArsiaMons
Gizmodo
3 days ago
- Science
- Gizmodo
Mars Orbiter Captures Rare View of Ancient Volcano Poking Above the Clouds
Floating in orbit above Mars, NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter captured a panorama of the Red Planet's biggest volcanoes, Arsia Mons, peeking over a sea of clouds. The picturesque moment offers an exceptionally rare view of a Martian volcano, showing the landform at an angle in space that captures the planet's horizon. 'We picked Arsia Mons hoping we would see the summit poke above the early morning clouds. And it didn't disappoint,' Jonathon Hill, the operations lead for Odyssey's camera and a mission planner at Arizona State University's Mars Space Flight Facility, called the Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS, said in a statement. THEMIS can view Mars in both visible and infrared light. Launched in 2001, Odyssey has been circling around Mars for over two decades, studying the Martian surface. But in 2023, the orbiter began taking breathtaking panoramic views of the Martian horizon. Because THEMIS can't pivot to get these stunning views, the orbiter flips on its side, rotating a full 90 degrees. That way, it captured Mars' 'limb,' the edge of the planet's horizon. This is THEMIS' fourth limb observation since 2023. Odyssey captured the image on May 2, just before dawn. In it, Arsia Mons stands 12 miles (20 kilometers) high and measures 70 miles (450 km) in diameter. For comparison, Earth's tallest volcano, Mauna Loa, stands 6 miles (9 km) above the seafloor and measures 75 miles (121 km) in diameter. Arsia Mons is also one of Mars' cloudiest volcanoes and the southernmost of the three Tharsis volcanoes that form Tharsis Montes, or Tharsis Mountains. These mountains are often surrounded by water ice clouds, particularly early in the morning. The clouds form when air expands as it blows up the sides of the mountain and then rapidly cools. This view also allows scientists to study Martian weather and phenomena like dust clouds and how they change over the course of the seasons. Odyssey might be able to capture a few more of these panoramas before its eventual retirement, likely at the end of this year.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA orbiter saw something astonishing peek through Martian clouds
NASA's longest-running Mars mission has sent back an unprecedented side view of a massive volcano rising above the Red Planet, just before dawn. On May 2, as sunlight crept over the Martian horizon, the Odyssey spacecraft captured Arsia Mons, a towering, long-extinct volcano, puncturing a glowing band of greenish haze in the planet's upper atmosphere. The 12-mile-high volcano — nearly twice the height of Mauna Loa in Hawaii — punctures a veil of fog, emerging like a monument to the planet's ancient past. The space snapshot is both visually arresting and scientifically enlightening. "We picked Arsia Mons hoping we would see the summit poke above the early morning clouds," said Jonathon Hill, who leads Odyssey's camera operations at Arizona State University, in a statement, "and it didn't disappoint." SEE ALSO: An enormous Martian cloud returns every spring. Scientists found out why. Arsia Mons sits at the southern end of a towering trio of volcanoes called the Tharsis Montes. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech To get this view, Odyssey had to do something it wasn't originally built for. The orbiter, which has been flying around Mars since 2001, usually points its camera straight down to map the planet's surface. But over the past two years, scientists have begun rotating the spacecraft 90 degrees to look toward the horizon. That adjustment allows NASA to study how dust and ice clouds change over the seasons. Though the image is still an aerial view, the vantage point is of the horizon, similar to how astronauts can see Earth's horizon 250 miles above the planet on the International Space Station. From that altitude, Earth doesn't fill their entire view — there's enough distance and perspective for them to see the planet's curved edge meeting the blackness of space. Odyssey flies above Mars at about the same altitude. Arsia Mons sits at the southern end of a towering trio of volcanoes called the Tharsis Montes. The Tharsis region is home to the largest volcanoes in the solar system. The lack of plate tectonics on the Red Planet allowed them to grow many times larger than those anywhere on Earth. Together, they dominate the Martian landscape and are sometimes covered in clouds, especially in the early hours. But not just any clouds — these are made of water ice, a different breed than the planet's more common carbon dioxide clouds. Arsia Mons is the cloudiest of the three. Scientists have recently studied a particular, localized cloud formation that occurs over the mountain, dubbed the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud. The transient feature, streaking 1,100 miles over southern Mars, lasts only about three hours in the morning during spring before vanishing in the warm sunlight. It's formed by strong winds being forced up the mountainside. The cloudy canopy on display in Odyssey's new image, according to NASA, is called the aphelion cloud belt. This widespread seasonal system drapes across the planet's equator when Mars is farthest from the sun. This is Odyssey's fourth side image since 2023, and it is the first to show a volcano breaking through the clouds. "We're seeing some really significant seasonal differences in these horizon images," said Michael D. Smith, a NASA planetary scientist, in a statement. "It's giving us new clues to how Mars' atmosphere evolves over time."
CBS News
4 days ago
- Science
- CBS News
Mars volcano twice as big as Earth's tallest one seen poking through clouds in first-of-its-kind image
A dazzling image taken by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter shows an unprecedented view of a 12-mile-high volcano poking through clouds at dawn on the Red Planet. Arsia Mons, which dwarfs Earth's tallest volcanoes, and its two neighboring volcanoes are often surrounded by water ice clouds, especially in the early morning. The image released Friday marks the first time one of the volcanoes has been imaged on the planet's horizon, NASA said. Odyssey has previously captured high-altitude images of the Martian horizon, and to do so, it rotates 90 degrees while in orbit so that its camera can take the picture, NASA said. The spacecraft typically focuses on the upper atmosphere but also studies surface features. The latest image, captured on May 2, focuses on Arsia Mons, which is roughly twice as tall as Earth's largest volcano, Hawaii's Mauna Loa, which rises 6 miles above the seafloor. The 2001 Odyssey spacecraft captured a first-of-its-kind look at Arsia Mons, which dwarfs Earth's tallest volcanoes. NASA Arsia Mons is the cloudiest of the three volcanoes in the area -- collectively called the Tharsis Mountains -- and the clouds are especially thick when the Red Planet is farthest from the sun, a period called aphelion. The new snapshot clearly shows the cloud canopy across the Red Planet's equator. "We picked Arsia Mons hoping we would see the summit poke above the early morning clouds. And it didn't disappoint," said Jonathon Hill, the operations lead for Odyssey's camera, called the Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS. The angle of the camera allows scientists to see dust and water ice cloud layers, enabling them to observe changes over the course of seasons. "We're seeing some really significant seasonal differences in these horizon images," said planetary scientist Michael D. Smith of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "It's giving us new clues to how Mars' atmosphere evolves over time." Launched in 2001, Odyssey has the distinction of being the longest-running spacecraft orbiting another planet. NASA's Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars in 2021, is collecting samples for an eventual return to Earth from Jezero Crater, an ancient lakebed and river delta that could hold clues to any past microbial life. Last month, Perseverance took a selfie that captured an image of a dust devil popping up about 3 miles behind the rover.
