Hephaestus Fossae Troughs

Image Title: Hephaestus Fossae Troughs
Release Date: September 25, 2006
Source: Mars Global Surveyor

Description

I originally thought to name this image "The Big T" but felt that from a composition perspective the image had greater impact when rotated 90° counter-clockwise. The image shows the intersection of two troughs in a region of Mars known as Hephaestus Fossae.

Hephaestus Fossae is centered at 20.9°N latitude, 122.5° E longitude and is roughly 600 kilometers in diameter. The name Hephaestus is one of the classical albedo feature names and fossae refers to the presence of a series of linear depressions found in this area.

Source Image Background

The image as shown is a cropped version of the Mars Global Surveyor MOC narrow-angle image R0501304 acquired in May 2003. The image is centered on 22.80°N latitude, 239.56°W longitude. Each pixel covers an area of about 1.5 square meters.

Image Processing

All processing of this image was done using Adobe Photoshop. This includes noise removal, the application of false color, and tonal adjustments.

Wallpaper Download

I have created a compressed low resolution version of "Hephaestus Fossae Troughs" for use as a desktop wallpaper. 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.

Hephaestus Fossae Troughs, 1024 x 768 Wallpaper Image by Jim Plaxco