Category: The Black Star Collection
Photographer: UNKNOWN
Agency: NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION (NASA)
Title: [At right is a 80x40 mi. (128x64 km) dune field of loose material in the floor of a 93 mile wide crater (150km) in the Hellespontus region of Mars, photographed by the Mariner 9 spacecraft's narrow angle camera.]
Event Date: 1972-05-14
Medium: gelatin silver print
Dimensions: approximately: 8 x 10 inches; 20.32 x 25.4 cm
Accession Number: BS.2005.236770

Inscriptions:
Recto, [no inscriptions]; Verso, handwritten: Astronomy - Space; typed: OFFICE OF PUBLIC INFORMATION / JET PROPULSION LABORATORY / CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY / NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION / PASADENA, CALIFORNIA. TELEPHONE 213-354-5011 EAST LONG [arrow]; stamped: [star] / Credit: / from BLACK STAR / NEGS NOT IN FILE; typed: PHOTO CAPTION MARINER 9 / Orbit 112 -- A24s / 229 -- B51F / JPL P-13112 / May 14, 1972 / At right is a 80x40 mi. (128x64 km) dune field of loose material / in the floor of a 93 mile wide crater (150km) in the Hellespontus / region of Mars, photographed by the Mariner 9 spacecraft's narrow / angle camera. The dune field appears as a black spot, at left, / in a wide-angle photograph of the crater (arrow). The field is/composed of numerous long dunes spaced about a mile apart. The / lee slopes of the dunes appear brighter in this picture. As in / dune fields on Earth, dunes at the margin of the field are smaller / than in the central parts. The similarity of size and direction / of the individual dunes indicates they were formed by strong / winds blowing from a consistent direction, which in this case / is from the South West. Other craters on Mars also contain / dark spots, some of which may be dune fields. Evidence of wind / erosion is seen in many Mariner 9 photographs, but this picture / is one of the few examples of very large scale depositing by / the wind. Mariner 9 has been in Martian orbit since November / 13, 1971, has returned 6824 photographs, and has mapped 85% / of Mars. The straight dark lines across the pictures are missing / lines of picture data which can be restored by a computer process.

Tagasauris Keywords: Aerial View; Crater; Day; Landscape; Low angle View; Mariner 9; NASA; Nature; Nobody; Nobody; Outdoors; Science; Science and technology; Space exploration; Still Life; Surface
Credit Line: The Image Centre, Black Star Collection.
Black Star Subject: ASTRONOMY / SPACE-MARS-MARINER 9-JULY 1972
Retouching: N