Avalanches Caught In Progress on Mars
Now this is cool! The HiRISE instrument on the Mars Reconnansiance Orbiter, which is currently exploring Mars from orbit, has snapped several avalanches in progress near the North Pole of Mars. They are some pretty amazing images and can be found here. It would be great to see them in person and up close, but not too close of course! More details can be found in the NASA press release and this SMH story. It’s good to see Glen Nagle, from Tidbinbilla in Canberra being interviewed about this as well.
Incidentally a friend of mine, Adrian Brown, works on the CRISM instrument which is also aboard MRO. He and his colleagues recently discovered substantial amounts of ephemeral water ice in the polar regions of Mars using CRISM. You can read about it here. Well done to Adrian and his co-workers! Its great to see more Australian’s in the thick of Mars research.