ESA - Rosetta - Beautiful new images from Rosetta’s approach to Mars: OSIRIS UPDATE

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Beautiful new images from Rosetta’s approach to Mars: OSIRIS UPDATE

25 February 2007

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Image of Mars seen by OSIRIS: A cloudy day on Mars

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An orange (red), green and near-UV colour filter composite image of Mars; the UV channel (the blue color) has been enhanced. The enhanced UV signal clearly shows the presence of the cloud system covering most of the Martian disk.

The image was acquired on 24 February at 19:28 CET from a distance of about 240 000 km; image resolution is about 5 km/pixel. Higher resolution images of Mars will be made available later.

Credits: ESA © 2007 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/ LAM/IAA/ RSSD/ INTA/ UPM/ DASP/ IDA

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Near-IR, green and near-UV colour view of Mars

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This image composite is based on near-infrared, green and near-ultra-violet colour information obtained by the OSIRIS Narrow Angle Camera. At the southern part of the planet, the southern spring polar cap is clearly seen. At this time of the Martian year, a large fraction of Mars' atmosphere is evaporating from the southern polar cap and will migrate to the northern polar cap during nothern winter. Over most of the Martian disk one can see large cloud systems.

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True-colour image of Mars seen by OSIRIS

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The first true-colour image generated using the OSIRIS orange (red), green and blue colour filers. The image was acquired on 24 February at 19:28 CET from a distance of about 240 000 km; image resolution is about 5 km/pixel. Higher resolution images of Mars will be made available later.

Credits: ESA © 2007 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/ LAM/IAA/ RSSD/ INTA/ UPM/ DASP/ IDA

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This ultraviolet image of Mars was taken on 24 February 2007 with the OSIRIS wide-angle camera through the 'OH' colour filter, intended for the indirect detection of water when observing comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Clouds are visible at the North polar cap of Mars and at the morning 'limb' (border or outermost edge of a celestial body). A high-altitude cloud is also visible and shown in the inset.

Credits: ESA © 2007 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/ LAM/ IAA/ RSSD/ INTA/ UPM/ DASP/ IDA

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OSIRIS image of atmospheric structures of Mars

Atmospheric structures can be seen in this image of Mars taken by the OSIRIS narrow-angle camera at 19:28 CET on 24 February 2007 from a distance of about 240 000 km.

The image was produced through a special combination of the green and red colour filters, emphasising the brightness difference. This image processing step enhances the structures in the atmosphere, either dust or clouds.

Credits: ESA © 2007 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

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Atmospheric structures can be seen in this image of Mars taken by the OSIRIS narrow-angle camera at 19:28 CET on 24 February 2007 from a distance of about 240 000 km.

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Download:

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Annotated version of a two-colour composite of Mars seen by the OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on 24 February at 19:28 CET from a distance of about 240 000 km, with an image resolution of about 5 km per pixel. This is better, for example, than previous views of the planet obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope. The greenish regions are clouds above the red surface of Mars.

Note high-resolution linked version of this image does not include the annotations.

Credits: ESA © 2007 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

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