NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRise Camera Finds Pimples on Red Planet

The widespread organic pimple on a person's face does not affect rocks or outer space objects, partly because the bumps are caused mainly by hair follicles that become blocked with oil or debris. However, there appears to be a breakout over at the neighboring planet, Mars, in a recent image taken by the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRise camera.

However, they are optical illusions that give the impression that there are acne or Mars pimples, similar to the uncomfortable lumps on a person's face.

Pimple on Mars? NASA MRO HiRise Team Clarifies Photo

Last August, the NASA MRO HiRise camera observed an abnormality in Mars' Southern pole that mimics newly formed acne or pimples on the planet's surface. But the HiRise team investigated, probed, and has now made it clear that these depressions, which became craters on the planet, are not pimples or biological material from beneath its rocks.

These "pimples" are space rocks that fragmented and fell to Earth in chunks, as confirmed by the NASA team and the University of Arizona.

Instead of a single large rock landing on Mars, the object fragmented as it descended, creating clusters coated with carbon dioxide ice to give the planet's surface a pimple-like appearance.

According to CNET, the MRO crew believed this was an optical illusion that appeared to be acne or pimples on Mars but was space rocks. Mars is not immune to strange and peculiar sights as it produces several distinctive structures or phenomena that are original to human astronomers who study and analyze the planet.

More Zit Photos

NASA's HiRISE camera showed a buried hole in the planet's northern area. It's simple for the imagination to twist the concave depression into a convex, acne-like Martian polar zit when viewed from the high height of the orbiter!

The image's hue is another reason linking it to acne is so simple. It's crucial to go a bit further into the nature of the color in this picture, as with most space photography. HiRISE observes in IR and some visible light, but Universe Today said it does not see color the same way as the human eye does. Processing, extending, and shifting different wavelengths is necessary to create photos where the colors appear similar to what they would be for a person. This HiRISE paper has the specifics.

Programs like MRO, Perseverance, and numerous more have improved our understanding of our world of dusty red neighbors. No other solar system object arouses as much interest and awe, and we are fortunate to be alive during the heyday of the Mars investigation.

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