Magnificent Desolation

Image Title: Magnificent Desolation
Release Date: October 14, 2005
Source: Mars Global Surveyor

Description

The phrase "magnificent desolation" was made famous by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Magnificent desolation was his description of the lunar surface. The same is even more true of Mars with its vast seas of sand dunes, towering volcanoes, immense valleys, and bizarre polar terrain. Following an evolutionary path greatly different than that of the Earth, Mars shows us just how creative nature can be.

Magnificent Desolation Source Image Background

The source image was taken by the Mars Global Surveyor Narrow Angle Camera in August 2005. The target area lies in the Syrtis Major quadrangle of Mars and is centered on .4° latitude, 276.7° longitude, an area that lies along the south rim of Isidis Planitia.

Magnificent Desolation Image Processing

All processing of this image was done with Adobe Photoshop. The false colors seen in this image were created using a novel coloring technique that I have developed. This image, and the "Martian Shark Teeth" image are the first two images added to the Mars Art Gallery using this technique.

Magnificent Desolation Wallpaper Download

I have created a low resolution, highly compressed version of "Magnificent Desolation" for use as a desktop wallpaper. Because of the visual complexity of the image, I had to use a higher JPEG compression than usual to get the file size down. Note that this wallpaper version is made available for your personal use only. It is not to be modified or redistributed in any form by any means. All rights are retained by the artist.

Magnificent Desolation, 1280 X 1024 Wallpaper Image by Jim Plaxco