The powerful camera was designed to capture detailed images of the Martian surface, including features as small as 3 feet (1 meter). The HiRISE camera has been taking images of Mars since 2006, when the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter began circling the red planet. NASA images showcase eerie beauty of winter on MarsĪnd last March, the Curiosity rover spotted a rock formation that resembled a flower on Mars. The frost here is a mixture of carbon dioxide ice and water ice and will disappear in a few months when spring arrives. Winter frost covers the colder, north-facing half of each dune (but not the warmer south-facing half). Sand dunes are moving across this landscape from top left to bottom right. This picture was taken far north of the equator just two days after the winter solstice when the Sun was just a few degrees above the horizon. Sometimes though, we would like to know what's going on in the dim wintertime areas. RELATED STORY: Dozens of Fresh Craters On Mars Discovered by NASA Thanks To The AI Crater ClassifierĬheck out more news and information on Mars in Science Times.Usually, HiRISE takes pictures of well-illuminated terrain where there is plenty of light to produce clear images. Analysis has shown that the land formation is a chance alignment of mineral dunes. The first that astronomers spotted a face on the Red Planet was in 1976, taken by Viking 1 Orbiter.
In 2020, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter uncovered an impact crater that looked like Ed Asner, according to CNet's report. The angel pattern was spotted between Ultimata Lingula and Ultima Chasma.īut over the years, astronomers have also spotted other images, like a rabbit, dragon, and a bat signal. Additionally, the hand of the angel that looks like it is reaching to the left is a large sublimation pit. For instance, this angel landscape on Mars is visible because of the nearby dune fields' pattern and composition. Last year in December, astronomers from the European Space Agency's Mars Express satellite have captured a photo of what looks like an angel that has wings and a halo near the south pole of Mars.Īccording to a previous report of Science Times, seeing human faces of familiar images on objects or landscapes is called pareidolia. The Happy Face crater is not the only inanimate object that is seen on Mars. The elevations that the different ice densities on the surface represent the distinct features seen above.ĪLSO READ: Images From Mars Reveal Unusual Triple Craters Overlapping Each Other Also, some blobby features have changed shape still because of thermal erosion from the Sun, which causes sublimation, or the phenomenon when a solid turns into a gas without passing the liquid state, which causes more erosion.Īccording to MailOnline, the evaporated frost may have settled anywhere on the planet but carbon dioxide ice was created near the poles, which only shift throughout the year as the climate on the planet changes. Thermal erosion has revealed more of the surface of the crater, which makes the smile appear larger.
Monitoring these regions for long periods can give insight into the longer-term climate trends on Mars. He added that measuring these changes on the Happy Face crater through the Martian year could help them understand the annual deposition and removal of polar frost. Also, it looked like it has gotten a nose job with the two depressions merging to form only one depression. Planetary scientist Ross Beyer of the Sagan Center at the SETI Institute said that almost a decade of thermal erosion had made the Happy Face crater smile larger. Thermal Erosion Reveals More of the Martian Soil As the carbon dioxide evaporates and exposes more soil, the 'nose' of the Happy Face crater has also grown into one large depression from two small dots, while the 'smile' has also grown significantly. The grinning visage was first discovered in 2011 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter using its powerful High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera (HiRISE).Īccording to Universe Today, a new image captured in 2020 has proven that it has changed over the past ten years due to thermal erosion. The infamous Happy Face crater on Mars near the south pole is smiling even brighter over the last decade.
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