Kaguya-022-hdtv_004_3c.jpgSome Lunar Geography from Kaguya: Thomson Crater and Mare Ingenii (FarSide)53 visiteMare Ingenii - Coord.: 33,7° South Lat. and 163,5° East Long; Total length: about 318 Km
Thomson Crater - Coord.: 32,7° South Lat. and 166,2° East Long.; Diam.: about 112 Km
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LRO-Mare_Ingenii-M191830503LR-PCF-LXTT-IPF.jpgFeatures of Mare Ingenii (Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga - Lunexit Team)135 visiteDear Friends, shall we go back to the Moon! The answer, of course, is "Yes", but...How? Well, since (apparently) there are no human missions planned in the very near Future (and for the time being), in order to do so (and possibly a little earlier than the AD 2025...), we decided to offer you, in Today's APOD, a really suggestive and impressive photographic panorama of the Lunar Mare Ingenii (such as the "Sea of Ingenuity") that was obtained by the NASA - Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Mare Ingenii is one of the few Lunar "Mare-like" Surface Features that is located in the so-called Far (or either "Dark") Side of the Moon. As a matter of fact, this Mare sits in the Ingenii Basin, whose material (according to some Planetary Scientists) can be related to the Pre-Nectarian Epoch or Period (note that the so-called Pre-Nectarian Period of the Lunar Geologic Timescale, runs from approx. 4,5 Billion Years ago - such as the time of the alleged formation of the Moon - to about 3,9 Billion Years ago, when the Nectaris Impact Basin formed after the occurrence of a large Meteor Strike); however, the Surface Material located in the Mare Ingenii itself, as well as in the Impact Craters which are immediately surrounding it, seems to relate, instead, to the Late Imbrian Epoch (remember that the Late Imbrian Epoch occurred, on the other hand, between approx. 3,8 to about 3,2 Billion Years ago and it is believed to be the Lunar Epoch during which the Mantle existing below the Major Lunar Impact Basins partially melted, and so filled them up with - mostly - Basalt).
The Dark Circular Surface Feature which dominates the Mare Ingenii is the Impact Crater named Thomson (a Crater that is approx. 112 Km in diameter). The Mare Ingenii also appears to be unevenly and thinly covered by a Layer of Lava (a fact, this one, which leads us to believe, once again, that the very distant past of the Moon was characterized by an almost continuous and, somehow, extraordinary violent Volcanic Activity, which was likely caused - if not entirely, at least for a very large part - by the occurrence of some powerful Tidal Stress which we believ that can be related to the action of the Earth itself). Furthermore, the Mare Ingenii contains one of the very few "Lunar (Collapse) Pits" which have so far been located on the Moon (but, anyway and for sake of clarity, just one of the VERY MANY Collapse Features located outside our Home Planet Earth).
The frame has been colorized in Absolute Natural Colors (such as the colors that a normal - meaning "in average" - human eye would actually perceive if someone were onboard the NASA - Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and then looked outside, towards the Surface of the Moon), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically emproved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team.
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NGC-0520-1.jpgNGC 520 alias Arp 157 - Colliding Galaxies58 visite"...Sic luceat Lux..."
(anonimo)
"...Così splenda la Luce..."
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OPP-SOL1162-B_P2299_L257atc-1.jpgThe "D-Star Panorama" - Sol 1162 (approx. true colors; credits: NASA - inset: MULTISPECTRUM; credits: Lunexit)54 visiteAllora, Cari Amici, innanzitutto perdonateci.
Perdonateci perché volevamo davvero piantarla lì con la storia dei Colori di Marte ma...eccoci ancora qui, con un nuovo (senz'altro bellissimo e suggestivo) new frame NASA pubblicato nella notte del 2 Gennaio 2008, il quale ci riporta (un’ennesima volta) alla questione di partenza: qual è il "vero" colore di Marte?
La NASA, a dire il vero, sta incominciando a dimostrare - se non altro - una certa coerenza; le sue ricostruzioni in approx. true colors, infatti, ormai sembrano volerci dire solo una cosa: la Dominante Cromatica della Regione di Meridiani Planum, VISTA DAL SUOLO, è il "verde scuro", con tracce giallastro/arancio.
Verde scuro.
A nostro avviso però - detto con umiltà ma ex informata scientia - questa "Dominante NASA" adottata per Meridiani è il prodotto di una clamorosa distorsione.
Una distorsione non solo e non tanto occorsa nelle modalità di colorizzazione del frame quanto, piuttosto, nelle modalità di diffusione dei dati.
Non Vi sarà difficile ricordare, ad esempio, il "Lion King Panorama" (eravamo nei pressi della Landing Zone di Opportunity, a qualche centinaio di metri dal Cratere Endurance – frame pubblicato nella Sez. Mars in Colors). Ebbene, in quello (splendido) frame, il deserto di Meridiani veniva mostrato dalla NASA - sempre in approx. true colors - di un color rosso/arancio vivo.
Altri frames colorati dalla NASA - e giunti in seguito - ci hanno fatto vedere come le sabbie di Meridiani presentino un "color ross/arancio-mattone" quale dominante; ed anche le foto orbitali a colori della Regione di Meridiani ci dicono che essa (al pari di quasi tutte le Regioni Equatoriali e presso-Equatoriali di Marte) è una Regione a Dominante Arancio-Giallo-Marrone.
Ed il "verde"? Zero.
Come fare a spiegare ed a spiegarVi, quindi, il senso (logico e cromatico) di questo New Color Deal della NASA?
Insomma: se le elaborazioni in approx. true colors degli Amici di Pasadena sono corrette adesso, allora - e non ci piove su questo - dovevano essere sbagliate prima.
D'altra parte, se esse erano corrette prima, allora quelle di adesso sono clamorosamente sballate.
Questa è semplice Logica, NON Polemica.
Ciò premesso, noi ci aspettavamo qualche chiarimento; qualche (anche piccola) delucidazione...E invece nulla.
I colori "Approssimativamente Veri" della NASA, a quanto pare, sono SEMPRE GIUSTI, sia quando ci mostrano Marte arancione, sia quando ce lo fanno vedere giallo, o rosso, o - come adesso - verde scuro.
E allora? E allora (e perdonateci l'ironia...) se il colori della NASA sono sempre giusti (pur nella loro radicale incoerenza), vuol dire che siamo noi a vedere male.
Siamo tutti daltonici? Siete anche Voi tutti daltonici?
Volete contribuire con un parere su quest'ultimissima versione di Marte?
Noi non sappiamo più cosa dire e quindi, speriamo agendo dignitosamente, ci permettiamo solo di inserire, nel mega-frame NASA, un piccolo inset con la nostra colorizzazione MULTISPECTRUM. Certo, forse anche il nostro MULTISPECTRUM sarà sbagliato (e, talvolta, fornisce risultati incoerenti) ma, se non altro, noi applichiamo un Metodo coerente e cerchiamo un confronto e qualche risposta sensata.
Peccato che alla NASA non abbiano MAI un attimo di tempo per spiegare a degli ignoranti come noi quale sia il "senso" (ammesso che un "senso" esista) delle loro colorizzazioni...
Molto interessanti – e questo è detto senza alcuna ironia – sono le ulteriori informazioni dedotte nella Captino NASA originale, che riportiamo integralmente.
E adesso (se volete…) a Voi la parola!
Caption NASA:"NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers have been getting smarter as they get older. This view from Opportunity shows the tracks left by a drive executed with more onboard autonomy than has been used on any other drive by a Mars rover.
Opportunity made the curving, 15,8-meter (52-foot) drive during its 1160th Martian Day, or Sol (such as April 29, 2007). It was testing a navigational capability called "Field D-star" which enables the Rover to plan optimal long-range drives around any obstacles in order to travel the most direct safe route to the drive's designated destination. Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, did not have this capability until the third year after their January 2004 landings on Mars. Earlier, they could recognize hazards when they approached them closely, then back away and try another angle, but could not always find a safe route away from hazards. Field D-Star and several other upgrades were part of new onboard software uploaded from Earth in 2006.
The Sol 1160 drive by Opportunity was a Martian field test of Field D-Star and also used several other features of autonomy, including visual odometry to track the Rover's actual position after each segment of the drive, avoidance of designated keep-out zones, and combining information from two sets of stereo images to consider a wide swath of terrain in analyzing the route.
Two days later, on Sol 1162 (May 1, 2007), Opportunity was still at the location it reached during that drive, and the Rover’s Pancam took the exposures combined into this image.
Victoria Crater is in the background, at the top of the image.
The Sol 1160 drive began at the place near the center of the image where tracks overlap each other. Tracks farther away were left by earlier drives nearer to the northern rim of the Crater. For scale, the distance between the parallel tracks left by the Rover's wheels is about 1 meter (39 inches) from the middle of one track to the middle of the other. The rocks in the center foreground are roughly 7 to 10 centimeters (3 to 4” – inches) tall. The Rover could actually drive over them easily, but for this test, Settings in the onboard hazard-detection software were adjusted to make these smaller rocks be considered dangerous to the Rover. The patch of larger rocks to the right was set as a keep-out zone. The location from which this image was taken is where the rover stopped driving to communicate with Earth. A straight line from the starting point to the destination would be 11 meters (36 feet).
Opportunity plotted and followed a smoothly curved, efficient path around the rocks, always keeping the rover in safe areas.
This view combines separate images taken through the PanCam filters centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers, 535 nanometers and 432 nanometers to produce an approximately true-color panorama".
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