A view of Mars, European style.Although the Mars lander Beagle 2 is presumed dead (SN: 1/31/04, p. 67), its mother craft, the European Space Agency's Mars Express This article or section documents a current spaceflight. Details may change as the mission progresses. , has transmitted its first data from a polar orbit A satellite orbit in which the satellite passes over the North and South poles on each orbit, and eventually passes over all points on the earth. The angle of inclination between the equator and a polar orbit is 90 degrees. about the Red Planet. Researchers unveiled the findings Jan. 23 at the European Space Agency's space operations center The facility or location on an installation, base, or facility used by the commander to command, control, and coordinate all crisis activities. See also base defense operations center; command center. in Darmstadt, Germany. The observations include data from the craft's infrared spectrometer that confirm the presence of water ice at the Martian south pole South Pole, southern end of the earth's axis, lat. 90° S. It is distinguished from the south magnetic pole. The South Pole was reached by Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian explorer, in 1911. See Antarctica. . NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft had previously found indirect evidence of water ice at the pole by revealing an abundance of hydrogen (SN: 1/18/03, p. 45.) Mars Express' high-resolution stereo camera A stereo camera is a type of camera with two or more lenses. This allows the camera to simulate human binocular vision, and therefore gives it the ability to capture 3-D Images, a process known as stereo photography. , which will map the entire planet in 3D during the craft's 2-year mission, has recorded a 1,700-kilometer-long swath of Valles Marineris, the Grand Canyon of Mars. Depicting mountain ranges, valleys, and mesas that may have been carved by water, the image is the first large-scale picture of a region on Mars showing details as small as 12 meters across. While new software is loaded onto the orbiter this month, the craft's detectors won't be taking data. In April, the spacecraft win begin scanning the planet with soil-penetrating, low-frequency radar beams, looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. echoes from liquid water as deep as 5 km below the surface. EXPRESS VIEW This 100-km view of a region near the Hellas basin on Mars shows a channel that may have been carved by flowing water. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion