Posted by Mr. Buracas on 2008-05-27
Even better than the last post, this one. It puts the Phoenix and parachute image in a bit of context. In this case, Heimdall Crater
To understand what’s going on, look at the box at the bottom left. It’s the magnified portion from the middle left part of the crater. On the larger photo, all you see is a speck of white, but that’s Phoenix
Click on the image to see it in full resolution.
It looks like Phoenix is headed for Heimdall, but really, it’s 20 km in front (towards the camera) of it. For a sense of scale, Hiemdall itself is ten km across, and the lander is 12 km above the surface. It just looks like it’s falling into the crater.
A little thing called parallax.
Posted in Astronomy Class | Tagged: exploration, mars, phoenix lander, solar system, space | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Mr. Buracas on 2008-05-27
This is an amazing photograph. Take a moment and look – really look – at it, and try to figure out what you’re seeing.
This is in fact the Phoenix Mars Lander, with parachute fully deployed. The photo was taken by the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The brightness has been adjusted to make the parachute more obvious (it was bright daylight a landing). If you look very closely, you can even see the shroud lines connecting the parachute.
The Orbiter is about 310 km above Mars’ surface, and Phoenix is about 12 km in altitude.
Posted in Astronomy Class | Tagged: exploration, mars, phoenix lander | Leave a Comment »
