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A Sequence of Beauty in Terby Crater

Sept. 18, 2017
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows Mawrth Vallis, one of the regions on Mars that has attracted much attention because of the nature and diversity of the minerals.
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This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the north-facing wall of a moat-like depression in the middle of Terby Crater, exposing a beautiful 400 meter-high sequence of light-toned, repetitive sedimentary layers. These deposits are often obscured by darker-toned patches of material as well as ripples and dunes.

The deposits in Terby, located on the northern rim of Hellas Planitia, are consistent with deposition in a standing body of water. The layers have been proposed as science targets for future landed missions.

The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 52.2 centimeters (20.6 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 157 centimeters (61.8 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.

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 Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

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