Search Publications
Lava tubes and basaltic caves as astrobiological targets on Earth and Mars: A review
Léveillé, Richard J.; Datta, Saugata
Lava tubes and basaltic caves are common features in volcanic terrains on Earth. Lava tubes and cave-like features have also been identified on Mars based on orbital imagery and remote-sensing data. Caves are unique environments where both secondary mineral precipitation and microbial growth are enhanced by stable physico-chemical conditions. Thus…
Transterminator ion flow in the Martian ionosphere
Fedorov, A.; Barabash, S.; Lundin, R. +4 more
The upper ionospheres of Mars and Venus are permeated by the magnetic fields induced by the solar wind. It is a long-standing question whether these fields can put the dense ionospheric plasma into motion. If so, the transterminator flow of the upper ionosphere could explain a significant part of the ion escape from the planets atmospheres. But it…
Ismenius Cavus, Mars: A deep paleolake with phyllosilicate deposits
Mangold, N.; Le Mouélic, S.; Poulet, F. +2 more
Ismenius Cavus is a basin where several fluvial valleys converge. Three depositional fan deltas are observed at the valleys outlets at similar elevations. These fans suggest long-term fluvial activity accompanied by a lake inside the basin. The elevational difference between the delta plains and the deepest part of the basin floor implies that thi…
Concatenation of HRSC colour and OMEGA data for the determination and 3D-parameterization of high-altitude CO 2 clouds in the Martian atmosphere
Montmessin, Franck; Gondet, Brigitte; Hoffmann, Harald +3 more
We used Mars Express HRSC and OMEGA data to investigate mesospheric cloud features observed in the equatorial belt of Mars from December 2007 until early March 2008. This period corresponds to early northern spring of Martian year 29. The reflection peak at 4.26 µm in OMEGA data identifies the clouds as CO 2 ice clouds. HRSC obser…
Determination of asteroid masses from their close encounters with Mars
Laskar, J.; Fienga, A.; Kuchynka, P. +1 more
An obstacle to the asteroid mass determination lies in the difficulty in isolating the gravitational perturbation exerted by a single asteroid on the planets, being strongly correlated and mixed up with those of many other asteroids. This hindrance may be avoided by the method of analysis presented here: an asteroid mass is estimated in correspond…
Morphology and origin of an evaporitic dome in the eastern Tithonium Chasma, Mars
Baioni, Davide; Wezel, Forese Carlo
A 3.4 km-high, dome-shaped upland in eastern Tithonium Chasma (TC) coincides with areas containing abundant surface signatures of the sulphate mineral kiersite, as identified by the OMEGA image spectrometer. The dome has surface features on its summit, flanks, and at its base that were apparently formed by liquid water released from melting ice. T…
Sublimation of the Martian CO 2 Seasonal South Polar Cap
Bibring, Jean-Pierre; Langevin, Yves; Martin, Patrick +6 more
The polar condensation/sublimation of CO 2, that involve about one fourth of the atmosphere mass, is the major Martian climatic cycle. Early observations in visible and thermal infrared have shown that the sublimation of the Seasonal South Polar Cap (SSPC) is not symmetric around the geographic South Pole. Here we use observations by OM…
Evidence for subaqueously resedimented sulphate evaporites on Mars
Baioni, Davide; Wezel, Forese Carlo
This article documents the clastic nature of sulphate evaporite beds in the Tithonium Chasma located in the Valles Marineris region of Mars. These beds form a stratified succession characterised by very thick interbedded channel-fill breccia bodies. We infer that the bouldery channel-fills were deposited by voluminous mass-flow processes occurring…
Analysis of disturbances in the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer through numerical modeling
Saggin, Bortolino; Comolli, Lorenzo
Fourier transform spectrometers are instruments with high sensitivity to many kinds of disturbances. This study started from the analysis of the disturbances related to mechanical vibrations on the PFS FTIR spectrometer to show how the measured spectra can differ from the actual ones. The complete study, more in general, accounts for the character…
Analysis of two sections of Shalbatana Vallis’ tributary channels
Kereszturi, Akos
Six tributaries of Shalbatana outflow channel were analyzed based on visible imagery by THEMIS, MOC, HRSC, and HiRISE, as well as on topographic data by MOLA. Two different sections could be identified on the tributaries: the upper and the lower reaches. The upper reaches are shallow, showing U-shaped cross-sectional profiles. Their bottom level i…