The High Resolution Imagine Science Experiment ( HiRISE ) camera onboard NASA ’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ( MRO ) has already discovered that the Red Planet is a dead on target nerd . From the coming into court of theStar Trek logoon the bottom of a giant crater , to the formation ofGame of Thrones’House Stark Direwolf sigilby dry rubble avalanche . A young addition to this list is the " dragon " found hide out in part of Mars ’ grand canon system of rules , Valles Marineris , which stretch out along the planet ’s equator .
Designed and operated by the Lunar and Planetary Lab at the University of Arizona , HiRISE is themost powerful cameraever sent to another planet . With a high-pitched - answer capability of up to 30 centimetre ( 11.8 inch ) per picture element , the tv camera has been sending back data since 2006 and has covered over2.4 percentof the Martian surface . One area repeatedly imaged isMelas Chasma – the widest segment of theValles Marineriscanyon system .
From animagetaken 258 kilometers ( 160 international mile ) above southwesterly Melas Chasma in 2007 , a portion of the Martian wall rock-and-roll and canyon storey appears to have formed a " dragon " . In the picture , the light brownish canon floor is litter with unusualblocky sedimentation , which vary in size between 100 to 500 meters ( 328 to 1640 foundation ) in diameter . Their morphologies also differ slightly .
Whilst most appear rounded , some have angulate edges and can be very elongated , which according to Cathy Weitz , from theUniversity of Arizona , is grounds forductile deformation . Here , rather of breaking , the John Rock has been shaped , belike from a flow or by a architectonic disruption after it became situate in the canon floor .
In fact , as NASA’sJet Propulsion Laboratorywrote in 2017 , “ there is evidence of both water and wind activity as modes of geological formation for many of the interior deposit ” in Melas Chasma . Indeed , the rippling that you may see in the darker matrix surrounding the “ dragon ” are due to steer . The dispersion of the blocks , observe entirely along the canyon flooring and in other vale ( like those near the bottom of the image ) , further suggests that “ they were either deposited or have been endanger by wearing away ” from lead or H2O .
As the MRO keep to revolve Mars , who knows what sci - fi or mythological symbol we may see next .
