Chandra Release - November 7, 2002

Visual Description: Mars

This is an X-ray image of Mars, the fourth planet from our Sun. The Chandra image features a large spherical grouping of magenta dots in the center, surrounded by sparser, smaller fainter dots, looking loosely like a hot pink planet made up of pixels on a black background. This Chandra data gave scientists their first look ever at X-rays from Mars. In the sparse upper atmosphere of Mars, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) above its surface, the observed X-rays are produced by fluorescent radiation from oxygen atoms. At the time of the Chandra observation, a huge dust storm developed on Mars that covered about one hemisphere, later to cover the entire planet. This hemisphere rotated out of view over the course of the 9-hour observation but no change was observed in the X-ray intensity, implying that the dust storm did not affect the upper atmosphere.