Avalanche on Mars

Orbiter snaps pictures of martian landslide

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First-ever image of active avalanches near the planet Mars' north pole. (Photo: NASA-JPL-Caltech-University of Arizona)

Ever heard of avalanches on Mars? Recently, a NASA spacecraft circling the fourth planet from the sun took the first-ever pictures of active avalanches near Mars' north pole. The High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took the photographs February 19.

Scientist Ingrid Daubar Spitale first noticed the avalanches in the photos. "It really surprised me," Spitale said. "It's great to see something so dynamic on Mars. A lot of what we see there hasn't changed for millions of years."

The most amazing thing is that these scientists found the avalanches completely by accident. "We were checking for springtime changes in the carbon-dioxide frost covering a northern dune field," said Candice Hansen, deputy principal investigator for HiRISE, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Finding the avalanches was completely serendipitous (a fortunate accident)."

Scientists are now investigating what set off the avalanches. NASA plans to take more pictures of the area where the slides were first seen. Scientists will also be observing whether this type of avalanche happens throughout all of the martian seasons of the year, or if they appear only in early spring.

What Is in a Martian Avalanche?

Scientists think that material which slid from the top of the martian cliffs was mostly ice with some dust mixed in. Scientists will study the fallen blocks of ice to see if they melt or shrink in size. This information will give them a better understanding of the water cycle on Mars.

Alan Stern, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C., is very proud of the avalanche discovery, and the organization's work on "the red planet," in general.

"Our Mars program is the envy of the world," Stern said. "We plan to launch a total of five more missions in the next decade, beginning with the Mars Science Lab rover next year, and a Mars Aeronomy Scout mission in 2013." (Aeronomy is the study of a planet's upper atmosphere.)

You can see more images of the martian avalanche and get more information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter at http://www.nasa.gov/mro.

MORE NEWS FROM OUTER SPACE

Get more news from outer space in this special report from Scholastic News Online.

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