MARS STUDENT IMAGING PROJECT FINAL REPORT ASU MARS EDUCATION PROGRAM Waubonsie Valley High School Period School Year

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1 I. Introduction What is your science question? What effect do the polar ice caps have on craters in the rock strata? Why is this question important and interesting? This question is important for the following reasons: 1. Could tell us more about the environmental conditions in the poles and their effects on geologic features. 2. Could tell us which land cover is more likely to preserve signs of past/ present water. List any hypotheses you may have had of what the answer(s) might be to your science question. 1. Craters found on the polar ice caps will be more likely to be destroyed or modified due to the erosional forces of the ice primarily through frost action and basal slip. II. Background This image was collected February 29, 2004 during the end of southern summer season. The local time at the location of the image was about 2 pm. The image shows an area in the South Polar Region. Depressions in the ice surface caused by sub ice craters Seasonal changes. The planet's rotation axis is tilted with respect to the orbital plane by almost 24 degrees, so Mars does experience significant seasonal differences in the amount of sunlight falling on a hemisphere during a year. The difference between winter and summer is more extreme on Mars than on Earth, due to the greater eccentricity of the Martian orbit. The Red Planet receives 40 percent more sunlight during its southern summer, when nearest the Sun, than during its southern winter, when the Sun is most distant. That makes for relatively hot southern summers and mild northern winters, but cool northern summers and cold southern winters. Themis #V E, Melt and freeze cycle. Astronomers have watched the annual shrinkage and expansion of Mars' polar caps for the past two centuries. The caps on Mars expand outward from the poles to cover up to 30 percent of the planet's surface area during the Martian winter, but shrink to smaller caps covering only one percent of the planet's surface in summer.

2 In the second, published in Icarus, an international team of scientists has showed that layers in the Martian polar ice caps can be used to understand Mars climate history, just as the ice on Greenland and Antarctica have helped to reveal Earth s. The discovery of snow came from an instrument on the orbiter known as the Mars Climate Sounder, which constantly looks toward the Martian horizon so it can take edge on measurements of the Martian atmosphere from top to bottom, registering the presence of temperature, humidity and solid particles of dust and ice. In this case, the ice is frozen carbon dioxide (CO2), which can only exist at temperatures below F. Scientists have long known that CO2 is a major component of the thin Martian atmosphere and of the ice caps. They ve also known that dry ice, building in winter and evaporating in summer, is why the Martian polar caps expand and contract over Mars 687 day year. Until now, however nobody was sure it settled as frost, or fell as snow. These new observations, however, clearly indicate dry ice clouds, along with particles streaming all the way to the surface. The particles are flakes of Martian air, lead author Paul Hayne said in a press release, and they are thick enough to result in snowfall accumulation at the surface. (Mars atmosphere has water vapor as well, but very little: in 2008, NASA s Phoenix lander detected ordinary snow, which evaporated before it reached the surface). Snowstorms and Climate Change... On Mars Climate Central September 14th, and climate change on mars III. Methods What specific spacecraft and camera did you use to collect data for your research? 1. THEMIS 2. MOLA Colorized Elevation The focus of our research was investigating craters in the South Pole Region near the ice cap. We used the JMARS data base platform. 1. Adjusted latitude to 90 o 2. Re centered projection 3. Open the following layers: THEMIS Stamps, MOLA Colorized Elevation Maps, Nomenclature (Craters) 4. We broke into groups that each individually recorded the necessary observations. We decided the following data was important to collect in order to answer our hypothesis. Latitude and Longitude This is important to know exact location and can be used to determine (in degrees) the distance from the pole. MOLA Cross Section Profile Line We collected Width and depth for each crater observed. This in combination with the visual bird s eye view can help us correctly identify the crater s state as preserved, destroyed or modified.

3 IV. Data MARS STUDENT IMAGING PROJECT FINAL REPORT South Pole Region Crater Long, Lat Cross Section Width(km)/ Depth (m) Crater Type Katoomba 126E, km, 791m d m Modified McMurdo 0.785E, km, 1050m p Preserved d D Destroyed Deseado 70E, km, 1500m m Elim E, km, 732m m Near South Pole Region (Ice free year round) Lomela E, km, 600m p Dzeng E, km, 250m m Playfair E, km, 500m p South 25.7E, km, 1600m m Dunhuang 31.35E, km, 550m p Joly E, km, 650m m Holmes 66.58E, km, 1170m m Sarn 306E, km, 123m m Lau E, km, 200m d Rayleigh 118E, km, 1750m m Liais 106E, km, 2150m m

4 Waubonsie Valley High School Periodd School Year V. Discussion Could there be inaccuracies and misinterpretations? If so, please explain. 1. The crater measurements were completed with MOLA. In a lot of cases, there were not THEMIS imagess available to provide the high detail and resolution to be extremely precise and accurate. 2. Human error: We had 8 separatee groups collecting data. Each group had their own intrinsic level of effort and focus on detail. 3. There also could have been misinterpretations of the state of the crater (p,m,d). 4. We question the reliability of JMARS. We would get a different number of THEMIS images for any one region each time we would open the THEMIS stamp layer. Also the solar longitude did not seem to change any data being presented. Observations of Data: 1. No clear Pattern 2. Does not alone support our hypothesis 3. Does not refute our hypothesis 4. Blue Box to the left of South Pole has all of the preserved craters. 5. Red box to the right of South Pole are all destroyed or modified. 6. The ice seems to move outwards from South Pole further to the Red Box. Could be a result of wind belts. Ice sheet is lined to show relationship to craters.

5 VI. Conclusions What is your science question? What effect do the polar ice caps have on craters in the rock strata? We hypothesized that craters found on the polar ice caps will be more likely to be destroyed or modified due to the erosional forces of the ice primarily through frost action and basal slip. We found that are observations and analysis of the data does not support or refute our hypothesis. We need more data: This represents areas of future research that could be valuable in answering our hypothesis. 1. Age of the craters. This is important because it is another huge variable that will determine the type of crater (m,d,p) which is our primary indicator of the ice s effect on the ice as well 2. Be able to collect data on the craters below the ice 3. Wind patterns 4. Seasonal growth and retreat patterns of the southern ice sheet Acknowledgements 1. Jessica Swann (Coordinator of program) 2. JMARS *See references 3. THEMIS *See references 4. MSIP and ASU *See references VI. References Christensen, P.R., N.S. Gorelick, G.L. Mehall, and K.C. Murray, THEMIS Public Data Releases, Planetary Data System node, Arizona State University, < data.asu.edu>. Christensen, P.R., B.M. Jakosky, H.H. Kieffer, M.C. Malin, H.Y. McSween, Jr., K. Nealson, G.L. Mehall, S.H. Silverman, S. Ferry, M. Caplinger, and M. Ravine, The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) for the Mars 2001 Odyssey Mission, Space Science Reviews, 110, , Watt, K. (2002). Mars Student Imaging Project: Resource Manuel. Retrieved June 29, 2006, retrieved Sept 2012 from Arizona State University, Mars Student Imaging Project Web site: Snowstorms and Climate Change... On Mars Climate Central September 14th, and climate change on mars 14979