Lizard-Skin Surface Texture The south polar region of Mars is
covered seasonally with translucent carbon dioxide ice. In the
spring gas subliming (evaporating) from the underside of the
seasonal layer of ice bursts through weak spots, carrying dust
from below with it, to form numerous dust fans aligned in the
direction of the prevailing wind. The dust gets trapped in the
shallow grooves on the surface, helping to define the small-
scale structure of the surface. The surface texture is
reminiscent of lizard skin. Image PSP_003730_0945 was taken by
the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera
onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on
14-May-2007. The complete image is centered at -85.2 degrees
latitude, 181.5 degrees East longitude. The range to the target
site was 248.5 km (155.3 miles). At this distance the image
scale is 24.9 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~75 cm
across are resolved. The image shown here has been map-projected
to 25 cm/pixel . The image was taken at a l