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Recurring Slope Lineae in Raga Crater

March 11, 2015
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter covers Raga Crater, the location of well-studied recurring slope lineae (RSL). RSL are dark flows that disappear and re-form every Mars year at certain locations.
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This image covers Raga Crater, the location of well-studied recurring slope lineae (RSL). RSL are dark flows that disappear and re-form every Mars year at certain locations.

A closeup image compares the dark flows at the same time in three consecutive Mars years. We can see that the pattern of lineae is nearly the same every year, but in the latest image they are slightly shorter.

Comparisons like these will help the HiRISE team learn how much the flows vary from year to year, as well as why they are different.

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

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