Not Quite Round

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Caption:

Context image

This VIS image shows an unnamed crater in Noachis Terra. The crater is relatively young, with several different structures on the floor and rim still visible. The inner rim of the crater has series of concentric benches, formed by collapse of the impacted surface into the bowl shaped interior. The crater floor is not flat, with several mounds created by rebound of melted material inside the crater. One of the more interesting features is that the crater is not round, as would be expected. The straight rims likely mean the there was a pre-existing tectonic fracture system, where the forces of the blast aligned with the fractures.

Orbit Number: 72453 Latitude: -19.7034 Longitude: 317.572 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2018-04-14 23:14

Background Info:

Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

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