Tall Boulder Rolls Down Martian Hill, Lands Upright

Tall Boulder Rolls Down Martian Hill, Lands Upright
by Staff Writers
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 15, 2014

The track left by an oblong boulder as it tumbled down a slope on Mars runs from upper left to right center of this image. The boulder came to rest in an upright attitude at the downhill end of the track. The HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recorded this view on July 3, 2014. For a larger version of this image please go here.

A track about one-third of a mile (500 meters) long on Mars shows where an irregularly shaped boulder careened downhill to its current upright position, seen in a July 3, 2014, image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The image is available online here http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA18594

The shadow cast by the rock in mid-afternoon sunlight reveals it is about 20 feet (6 meters) tall. In the downward-looking image, the boulder is only about 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) wide.

It happened to come to rest with its long dimension vertical.

The trail it left on the slope has a pattern that suggests the boulder couldn't roll smoothly or straight due to its shape.

Related Links
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more

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