William Atkins
Monday, 26 May 2008 21:48
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 2
The Phoenix Mars Lander has found quilt-like patterns on the flat, northern polar region of Mars. Some media reports are calling it “strangely patterned.” Indeed, is this “crazy-quilt” description out of the ordinary?
Crazy? No, not really.
Such quilt-like patterns are also found at Earth’s arctic region.
To see these images of the quilt patterns on Mars, please go to the University of Arizona website entitled “
Images of the Lander.”
Some of the first images sent by the spacecraft to mission controllers on Earth, at around 7 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) on Sunday, May 25, 2008 (0300 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on Monday, May 26, 2008), are of polygonal cracks on the surface of Mars that look very similar to quilt patterns.
These cracks are polygon in shape; that is, plane figures that contain a closed series of straight line segments. In this case, they look similar to the patterns seen on
quilts commonly made with a regular pattern or design.
The northern plains of Mars, which is the general location where the Phoenix spacecraft landed, is a tundra region full of permafrost.
Specifically, Phoenix landed in a region called Vastitas Borealis, a huge lowland region on Mars in the northerly latitudes. It is often simply called the Northern plains, or Northern lowlands.
Similar quilt-like patterns are found in the arctic region on Earth. The polygonal features contain trough-like boundaries. These markers are likely created on Mars in a similar way as they are created on Earth.
In such very cold climates (whether it is here on Earth or millions of miles away on Mars, repeated expansion and contraction of subsurface ice causes cracks to form, producing the trough-like borders.
When we look at them—such as through the stereo camera onboard Phoenix—we see the quilt-like patterns.
What else have the Phoenix mission team found in less than one day on Mars?
Look further on the next page for additional sites of images and news of the Phoenix Mars Lander mission.
