Tall Boulder Rolls Down Martian Hill, Lands Upright

Tall Boulder Rolls Down Martian Hill, Lands Upright
by Staff Writers
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 15, 2014

The track left by an oblong boulder as it tumbled down a slope on Mars runs from upper left to right center of this image. The boulder came to rest in an upright attitude at the downhill end of the track. The HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recorded this view on July 3, 2014. For a larger version of this image please go here.

A track about one-third of a mile (500 meters) long on Mars shows where an irregularly shaped boulder careened downhill to its current upright position, seen in a July 3, 2014, image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The image is available online here http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA18594

The shadow cast by the rock in mid-afternoon sunlight reveals it is about 20 feet (6 meters) tall. In the downward-looking image, the boulder is only about 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) wide.

It happened to come to rest with its long dimension vertical.

The trail it left on the slope has a pattern that suggests the boulder couldn't roll smoothly or straight due to its shape.

Related Links
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more

Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks

del.icio.us

Digg

Google

NASA's Mars Spacecraft Maneuvers to Prepare for Close Comet Flyby
Pasadena CA (SPX) Jul 29, 2014
NASA is taking steps to protect its Mars orbiters, while preserving opportunities to gather valuable scientific data, as Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring heads toward a close flyby of Mars on Oct. 19. The comet's nucleus will miss Mars by about 82,000 miles (132,000 kilometers), shedding material hurtling at about 35 miles (56 kilometers) per second, relative to Mars and Mars-orbiting spacecr ... read more

The Future of CubeSats

Lockheed taps GenDyn unit for Space Fence ground equipment structures

Canada's MDA receives radar antennas for satellite use

Disney develops method to capture stylized hair for 3-D-printed figurines

ADS will bid for USAF order for commercial satellite bandwidth

RRC supports Navy's Satellite Communications Facility in Virginia

Communications system used in Afghanistan gets Northrop support

Fourth MUOS Communication Satellite Clears Launch-Simulation Test

Aerojet Rocketdyne Supports Fifth Successful Launch in Six Weeks

Optus 10 delivered to French Guiana for Ariane 5 Sept launch

SpaceX to build world's first commercial rocket launch site in south Texas

Ariane 5 is readied for Arianespace's September launch with MEASAT-3b and Optus 10

Twin Galileos meet, ready for Thursday's launch

Two new satellites for Europe's Galileo space network

First operational Galileo GPS satellites integrated for Soyuz launch

Payload Integration Begins For Next Arianespace Soyuz Galileo Launch

Digital cockpits for UH-60L Black Hawks

Army taps Sikorsky-Boeing to develop new helicopter

Japan to test first homegrown stealth fighter jet: report

Airports plant prairie grass to prevent bird strikes

Could hemp nanosheets topple graphene for making the ideal supercapacitor?

Can our computers continue to get smaller and more powerful?

Graphene-based planar micro-supercapacitors for on-chip energy storage

Pairing old technologies with new for next-generation electronic devices

Watching the Winds Where Sea Meets Sky

DigitalGlobe Announces Launch of WorldView-3

NASA to Investigate Climate Impacts of Arctic Sea Ice Loss

TechDemoSat-1 video from orbit captures spectacular view of Earth and a flypast of the launcher

Mexico acid leak leaves orange river, toxic water

India's top court raps Modi government over filthy Ganges

Physicists create water tractor beam

Chemical leak at Mexican mine fouls water supply

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.