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the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has seen

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many places on the planet

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one of the most interesting

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is one of the great canyon systems on

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Mars this is a branch of that Canyon

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system called candor casma you can see

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the tortured ground that is there the

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layers the many buttes and mesas that

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poke up above this the scale of these

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things is such that we're looking across

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a couple of miles of territory

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there is no vertical exaggeration in the

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stereo image made by taking images at

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separate times on separate orbits some

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of these buttes extend up a football

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field and size false systems that were

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produced by earthquakes in this case

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Mars quakes give us clues as to whether

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this is material that was eroded away or

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actually whether it was deposited and

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then eroded later that stress pattern

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show us the canyon form first was filled

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with material and eroded away leaving

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these buttes with the buttes being

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formed by more resistant rock at the top

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one of the questions we have about Mars

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is where we see the effects of water on

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its surface how did that water get there

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it may have been different in different

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places did it from underground that

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Springs for instance or did it fall from

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the sky and rainfall and it may have

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been associated with events like impact

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craters one of those impact craters is

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Mojave Crater and here we're going to

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look at a perspective view that was

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formed from two images forming a stereo

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pair as you can see water pounded on the

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terraces and then it overflowed and ran

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down to the next Terrace if you look at

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the rim of the crater you see channels

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that run right up to the top so these

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aren't Springs this must have been

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rainfall that carved this part of the

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the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is able

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to look at not only the structure of the

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surface its topography and shape but

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also its composition we're going to zoom

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in to an area called Nellie Fosse that

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is very diverse and that's shown here in

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false color what we're looking at are

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the mineral signatures fingerprints that

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appear and reflected sunlight although

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it's at wavelengths that our eyes are

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not sensitive to straight edges are the

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edges of the images that were taken we

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don't have complete coverage what we're

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most interested in here are the areas

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that are colored green those are areas

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in which carbonates are present

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carbonates indicate that here's an

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environment that could have been

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conducive to life and if not life today

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it could have preserved the signature of

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life that may have occurred in the past

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that is the organic molecules should

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also be preserved today if they were

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ever produced on its surface this very

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diverse area shows a complex mineral

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signature and also shows that there are

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many different kinds of water

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environments on the planet so water was

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not uniform in its activity it may

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persist it in some areas longer than in

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other areas and its interaction with the

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rock has left us clues about what that

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one of the early images taken by the

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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was a

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Victoria crater in order to help the

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opportunity Rover figure out which way

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to move around the crater as it looked

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for a way to get down inside here you

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see that image taken from 180 miles

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above the surface of Mars we're going to

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use that image to zoom in and see what

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it would look like from the rover's

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point of view if it were on the edge of

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the crater looking out over it and then

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matched that with an image that was