PIA17645: Breaching a Crater Rim in Tartarus Montes


Breaching a Crater Rim in Tartarus Montes

Caption:

In this image, we can see a small notch in a crater rim with a well-formed channel. Lava appears to have flowed through this notch and filled in this approximately 10-kilometer (6-mile) diameter crater.

Obtaining another image of the same area at a different angle (what we then call a "stereo pair") can help us see this terrain in three dimensions and answer some questions about what happened here, e.g., is the high-lava mark consistent with the lava overtopping the exterior? Did the crater fill to the level of the lava outside?

Background Info:

HiRISE is one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the orbiter's HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Mars
System
Target Type Planet
Mission Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
Instrument Host Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Host Type Orbiter
Instrument High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE)
Detector
Extra Keywords Color, Crater, Mountain
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2013-08-28
Date in Caption
Image Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17645
Identifier PIA17645