A Dark-Toned, Pitted Mound in a Crater in Northeast Arabia Terra

• Click the image above for a larger view
• Full-Res JPEG (2880 x 1800) (774.2 kB)
• Full-Res TIFF (2880 x 1800) (15.6 MB)

Caption:

Map Projected Browse Image
Click on the image for larger version

This fascinating observation shows us a dark-toned mound with pits inside an impact crater . Are these pits the result of sublimation?

The crater itself is an ancient one, as evidenced by the eroded rim. For the mound inside, HiRISE resolution can give us a closer look at textural features that might help explain what we're looking at: layers in pit walls, or perhaps cracks from expansion?

Background Info:

HiRISE is one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, 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 NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Cataloging Keywords: