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  Tattooed Mars  

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Uploaded: 10/27/09 9:25 AM GMT
Tattooed Mars
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This high-resolution picture from the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows twisting dark trails criss-crossing light-colored terrain on the Martian surface. Newly formed trails like these had presented researchers with a tantalizing mystery but are now known to be the work of miniature wind vortices known to occur on the red planet, in other words Martian dust devils. Such spinning columns of rising air heated by the warm surface are also common in dry and desert areas on planet Earth. Typically lasting only a few minutes, dust devils become visible as they pick up loose red-colored dust leaving the darker and heavier sand beneath intact. Ironically, dust devils have been credited with unexpectedly cleaning the solar panels of the Mars rovers.

Image Credit: NASA, HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona)

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.gbo911
10/27/09 9:32 AM GMT
Very interesting pic. Thank you.
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And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it."
.Jhihmoac
10/27/09 9:59 AM GMT
Wierd...Thanks for sharing...
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"I ain't afraid of no ghost..." - RAY PARKER JR. Visit Jhihmoac's Gallery
::PhotoSynthesis
10/30/09 10:44 PM GMT
Beautiful, mystical.. It's almost impossible to determine what it is really, even with explanation, but not to discredit. I really like this one. I've said in the past, I really don't like art with machines, army, nasa etc.. but most everything you've presented is the exception. very nice as always.
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::coram9
10/31/09 8:08 AM GMT
At first sight I thought it was something else. My second thought — it must be my age — was that I had not heard the word Mars' used in that context before. My third thought was to admire the unusual and abstract tattoo, much better than the usual stuff you see on people. Then my brain started to work. In mitigation, it is early in the morning and I have just been doing some exercise. It is a stunningly beautiful image, but I am into space stuff anyway, esp. Hubble pictures and the like. This is a very pale image for mars, most of the pictures you see are rather redder.
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