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Thursday 3 September 2009

Thousands of New Images Show Mars in High Resolution

Image advisory: 2009-136                                                 Sept. 2, 2009

Thousands of New Images Show Mars in High Resolution

PASADENA, Calif. -- Thousands of newly released images from more than 1,500
telescopic observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show a wide range of
gullies, dunes, craters, geological layering and other features on the Red Planet.

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the orbiter
recorded these images from the month of April through early August of this year. The
camera team at the University of Arizona, Tucson, releases several featured images each
week and periodically releases much larger sets of new images, such as the batch posted
today.

The new images are available at http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/releases/sept_09.php .

Each full image from HiRISE covers a strip of Martian ground 6 kilometers (3.7 miles)
wide, about two to four times that long, showing details as small as 1 meter, or yard,
across.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been studying Mars with an advanced set of
instruments since 2006. It has returned more data about the planet than all other past and
current missions to Mars combined. For more information about the mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mro .

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a division of the
California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena.  Lockheed Martin Space Systems,
Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High
Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson,
and the instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.

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--
Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling
--
Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator of the Stars (Fieldwork)
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Web: http://lyra.freewebsites.com/

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