Scientists have revealed the surface of Mars in unprecedented detail thanks to a revolutionary imaging stacking and matching technique. The new images even reveal the location of Beagle 2 and may tell researchers a bit more about the history of the Red Planet.
Even with the largest telescopes that can be launched into orbit, the level of detail that can be seen on the surface of planets is limited. This is largely due to mass constraints for telescope optics in addition to the communication bandwidth needed to deliver high-resolution images to Earth. With that said, researchers have now found a way to get a better view of other planets without sending more equipment into space.
In this latest effort, researchers stacked and matched pictures of the same area taken from different angles. These Super-Resolution Restoration (SSR) images can show objects as small as 2 inches from space. For Mars, these images can be captured over a period of 10 years and still achieve a high resolution since the surface changes so little over time.
"We now have the equivalent of drone-eye vision anywhere on the surface of Mars where there are enough clear repeated pictures," said Jan-Meter Muller from the UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory and one of the researchers in the new study. "It allows us to see objects in much sharper focus from orbit than ever before and the picture quality is comparable to that obtained from landers. As more pictures are collected, we will see increasing evidence of the kind we have only seen from the three successful rover missions to date. This will be a game-changer and the start of a new era in planetary exploration."
The new images reveal objects at a resolution of up to five times greater than previously achieved. Not only that, but they show ancient lake beds and exciting images of the Beagle 2 lander.
"Using novel machine vision methods, information from lower resolution images can be extracted to estimate the best possible true scene," said Yu Tao of UCL and lead author of the new study. "This technique has huge potential to improve our knowledge of a planet's surface from multiple remotely sensed images. In the future, we will be able to recreate rover-scale images anywhere on the surface of Mars and other planets from repeat image stacks."
The findings were published in the February edition of the journal Planetary and Space Science.
