Cumbrian Sky

WELCOME TO CARNIVAL OF SPACE READERS!

We're now just 39 days away from the landing of Phoenix on Mars, up in the as yet unseen martian arctic, and many people are wondering what the lander's cameras will see after it touches down in "Green Valley", the site selected by the Phoenix team for the landing.

Here's a magnified crop of a recently-released HiRISE image showing part of Phoenix's landing ellipse...

... and a colourised, slightly less magnified section too...

What do they show? Well, I'm it looks - to me - like the bright "lines" have ripples and structure, so I'm guessing (but may be wrong) that they're kind of troughs, with dunes or mounds of some sort. And the dark areas? They look like flat patches to me. So.... adding 2 and 2 to get 5... or probably 20... and based on what I've heard, read, seen and been told - using information from other HiRISE images, images of the arctic regions here on Earth, and predictions recently offered by Phoenix's head scientist Peter Smith on the excellent spacEurope blog ("flat horizon... cobbles and stones on the ground..."), I've Photoshopped what I think MIGHT (that's MIGHT, POSSIBLY, PERHAPS!!!) appear on our screens when the first detailed colour images come back from Phoenix. I could be totally, 1000% wrong, but hey, that's all part of the fun!

Full size version here if you want a look...

And after a bit more research about "polygonal fracturing" in the Arctic, and some more playing about with lighting etc, I came up with this...

... which might actually be more accurate. (Full size version here). It is missing some rocks and boulders, of course, but I had trouble adding those, so I'm just imagining that Phoenix comes down in a spectacularly and conveniently boulder-free area...! :-)

What will Phoenix actually see?We'll know in 39 days' time..! I'm probably a million miles away with this visualisation, but if I'm spot on then I reserve the right to enjoy a smug little smile when the first pictures come down... :-)

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