Mars Dune field picture

[Tigersoap]

Is it me or these tendrils look like plants of some sort, an image can be tricky but I am not really convinced by the explanation ?

It’s Mars, a dune field in the far north; at latitude 83.5° to be precise, less than 400 km (240 miles) from the north pole. The eternal Martian wind blows the heavy sand into dunes, and you can see the hummocks and ripples from this across the image. The sand on Mars is from basalt, which is a darkish gray color. The red comes from much smaller dust particles which settle everywhere.

But what are those weird tendril thingies?

In the Martian winter, carbon dioxide freezes out of the air (and you thought it was cold where you are). In the summer, that CO2 sublimates; that is, turns directly from a solid to a gas. When that happens the sand gets disturbed, and falls down the slopes in little channels, which spreads out when it hits the bottom. But this disturbs the red dust, too, which flows with the sand. When it’s all done, you get those feathery tendrils. Note that at the tendril tips, you see blotches of red; that’s probably from the lighter dust billowing a bit before settling down.

_http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/01/11/another-dose-of-martian-awesome/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DiscoverMag+%28Discover+Magazine%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

The same image but a bigger resolution is available :

_http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_007962_2635


Edit : oops should probably be moved to outer space category

 

[Gimpy]

The image appears to be heavily doctored, in addition to having a weird explanation for the dead 'trees'.

The patterns of the dunes are like nothing I've ever seen before. Almost like a fabric repeat.

 

[Buddy]

My impression is of a digital photo of an image painted on a textured canvas, although I am aware that texture can be artificially applied to a photo, as well. There seems to be unnecessary blurring of certain lines. In other words, I would expect to see sharper distinctions considering that you can see enough detail to notice "branches" on "trees".


I noticed the site name includes the phrase: Imaging Science Experiment, the usage policy indicates the images are produced by HiRise, which is also part of the name of the site, and the image data was processed using the ISIS3 software, whose purpose is to manipulate imagery.

All in all, I would say it is a fake and the individual(s) at the University is/are relying on the viewer's assumptions to get the image passed around or whatever.

Just my thoughts, and I could be wrong. :)

 

[Tigersoap]

My impression is of a digital photo of an image painted on a textured canvas, although I am aware that texture can be artificially applied to a photo, as well. There seems to be unnecessary blurring of certain lines. In other words, I would expect to see sharper distinctions considering that you can see enough detail to notice "branches" on "trees".

However, the real power of Isis is its unique capabilities for processing data from NASA spacecraft missions such as Voyager, Viking, Galileo, Mars Global Surveyor, and Mars Odyssey. Isis is able to import raw mission data into a usable geospatial image product, and has tools for digital mosaicking of adjacent images, photometric modeling and normalization, removal of systematic noise patterns, overlaying graticules, and numerous other cartographic and scientific analysis functions.

I think it's the photometric modeling part (?) that gives that weird computer aspect, all the pictures on the HiRise sites are available non-coloured or modeled.
The colours are not genuine, they say so on the faq.

HiRise seems to be the best image taker for such project : _http://www.uahirise.org/teknikos.php

Of course everything could be doctored or visual informations retained but I don't think it is the case here.

fwiw.

 

[Joe]

Looks like a close up of some Martians skin!