Cubism in the Western Rim of Holden Crater

April 6, 2016

This image captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter covers the western rim of Holden Crater during northern summer. Since Holden Crater is in the Southern hemisphere of Mars, the shadows are long in northern summer (southern winter).

This image covers the western rim of Holden Crater during northern summer. Since Holden Crater is in the Southern hemisphere of Mars, the shadows are long in northern summer (southern winter).

Where the crater rim is well illuminated, we can see blocks of material with different colors, representing diverse rock types that have been jumbled by impact processes. In places it resembles the early-20th-century art movement called cubism.

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.

Cubism in the Western Rim of Holden Crater

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