Aristarchus Plateau (1): Amazing Geologic Diversity

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Caption:

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Eastern slope (right to left is downhill) of the Vallis Schröteri, "Cobra Head." This feature is located in the western portion of a Constellation Program region of interest on the Aristarchus plateau. The slopes of the Cobra Head are boulder-rich and display albedo variations - bright to dark. The patterns of debris and flows on the slopes are evidence for mass-wasting and landslides that expose a variety of rocks. Image width is ~0.5 km, pixel width is 0.51 meters, NAC frame M111918050R.

Background Info:

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center built and manages the mission for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera was designed to acquire data for landing site certification and to conduct polar illumination studies and global mapping. Operated by Arizona State University, the LROC facility is part of the School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE). LROC consists of a pair of narrow-angle cameras (NAC) and a single wide-angle camera (WAC). The mission is expected to return over 70 terabytes of image data.

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