NASA HiRISE camera, onboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, was looking for frost when it snapped a first-time ever photograph of active avalanches near the north pole of the planet Mars.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Candice Hansen, deputy principal investigator for the
HiRISE mission stated, "
We were checking for springtime changes in the carbon-dioxide frost covering a northern dune field, and finding the avalanches was completely serendipitous.” [NASA: "Avalanches on Mars"]
The images of active avalanches at the Martian north pole are the first ever taken by scientists. Released on March 3, 2008, they were taken by the camera High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE), which is orbiting Mars onboard the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
An image of the avalanche is found on the NASA website “
Avalanches on Mars.”
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Avalanches on Mars surprise NASA astronomers
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