Green Areas on Mars

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Raymond C. Glassford - 20 Jun 2008 23:59 GMT

I am still wondering why telescopic photos of Mars from Earth show green
areas that expand and contract with passage of the martian seasons, yet
photos taken by spacecraft orbiting Mars do not show green areas. This
question has puzzled me ever since the first photo fly-by of the planet
by Mariner 4. Now, many years have passed, computers and the Internet
have arrived, and searching with Google is not able to provide me with a
plausible answer ... at least not so far.

Can someone summarize, or point me to, the currently held "majority
view" that explains this discrepancy?

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Ron Miller - 04 Jul 2008 13:57 GMT

> I am still wondering why telescopic photos of Mars from Earth show green
> areas that expand and contract with passage of the martian seasons, yet
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> Can someone summarize, or point me to, the currently held "majority
> view" that explains this discrepancy?

It's been shown that a grey area surrounded by red will appear
greenish by contrast. This is what happened with visual observations
of Mars.

R

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Space Forum / Space Science / July 2008

Green Areas on Mars