JavaScript is required
JPL Logo
Image

Crater with Trough in Utopia Rupes

Nov. 13, 2013
Does this observation from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show a possible proto-pedestal crater? This crater has a ring trough, but the inner circle around the crater does not appear significantly elevated.

Does this observation show a possible proto-pedestal crater?

This crater has a ring trough, but the inner circle around the crater does not appear significantly elevated. Why did the ring around the crater collapse before anything else? Could it be an example of ice sublimating from below the surface?

A high resolution image shows us better details, as we can see in this close-up.

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.

Keep Exploring