Martian surface Martian surface The study of surface characteristics (or surface properties and processes) is a broad category of Mars science that examines the nature of the materials making up the Martian surface. The study evolved from telescopic and remote-sensing techniques developed by astronomers to study planetary surfaces. However, it has increasingly become a subdiscipline of geology as automated spacecraft bring ever-improving resolution and instrument capabilities. By using characteristics such as color, albedo, and thermal inertia and analytical tools such as reflectance spectroscopy and radar, scientists are able to study the chemistry and physical makeup (e.g., grain sizes, surface roughness, and rock
Incompressible surface Incompressible surface In mathematics, an incompressible surface is a surface properly embedded in a 3-manifold, which, in intuitive terms, is a "nontrivial" surface that has been simplified as much as possible by compressing disks. They are useful for decomposition of Haken manifolds and for normal surface theory. Let "S" be a compact surface properly embedded in a smooth or PL 3-manifold "M", and suppose that there is a disk "D" embedded in "M" such that where the curve ∂"D" does not bound a disk inside of "S". Then "D" is called a compressing disk for "S", and we call "S"