I just found this new image of 2001 Mars Odyssey:
![Image](http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA13786.jpg)
PIA13786
Has anyone of you an idea of what this light material on the edge of the mountains could be?
Light, maybe? It's not obvious it is a material at all (that is, not a different material from the surrounds).Hofi wrote:Has anyone of you an idea of what this light material on the edge of the mountains could be?
I don't understand the issue, either. If a different image was under original consideration, there's no way to comment on it. But the image that is currently seen above, and which is on the NASA site as PIA13786, looks to me like a region of complex terrain, with the white areas indicating reflected sunlight (or possibly thermal emission, depending on the wavelength band or bands used). It doesn't look to me like the white defines a mineral distribution. And I do see ridge and gully structure in the white areas.beyond wrote:That's just it, Rob. The white stuff is NOT supposed to have ridges! Hofi, who posted it, says there are NO ridges in the white stuff. It has small gullies and the white stuff is rather smooth on top. Perhaps you should print it out as i did and take a look once in a while. Once it happens to you, you'll know.
When i see it with the ridges, it looks like a different picture than with the little gullies. When i see it with the gullies the white stuff is brighter and it doesn't look as though the white is caused by sunlight, but that may be an optical illusion also.To me, the white almost looks like ivory.
I didn't say the white stuff has ridges. I said it was on the sunward side of ridges, with shadow on the other side. As for the white stuff being flat, the ridges don't need to be steep to have this visual effect. A small slope will do, and the overall landscape can still be close to flat (as seen in the image just posted by bystander above.)beyond wrote:That's just it, Rob. The white stuff is NOT supposed to have ridges!...