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Central Pit Crater - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Natural color image of the central pit of an unnamed 58 km impact crater in the northwestern Nili Fossae region. Central pits are thought to form when large impact craters form in regions with a significant amount of deeply buried ice. The force of the impact causes these deeply buried ices to rebound towards the surface, initially forming a central peak. However, the ice quickly vaporizes or melts, leaving a pit.
This natural color was created using the CRISM imaging spectrometer. Each pixel of a CRISM image contains a 500 point spectrum, from which a color can be reconstructed. This reconstructed color was overlaid on a higher-resolution image taken with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Context Camera (CTX), which simultaneously took a photo while CRISM was collecting data.
This image was taken on December 21, 2006. It uses CRISM observation FRT000037ae and CTX observation P02_001886_2049_XI_24N285W.
Image Credit: NASA / JPL / JHUAPL / MSSS / Justin Cowart
Central Pit Crater - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Natural color image of the central pit of an unnamed 58 km impact crater in the northwestern Nili Fossae region. Central pits are thought to form when large impact craters form in regions with a significant amount of deeply buried ice. The force of the impact causes these deeply buried ices to rebound towards the surface, initially forming a central peak. However, the ice quickly vaporizes or melts, leaving a pit.
This natural color was created using the CRISM imaging spectrometer. Each pixel of a CRISM image contains a 500 point spectrum, from which a color can be reconstructed. This reconstructed color was overlaid on a higher-resolution image taken with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Context Camera (CTX), which simultaneously took a photo while CRISM was collecting data.
This image was taken on December 21, 2006. It uses CRISM observation FRT000037ae and CTX observation P02_001886_2049_XI_24N285W.
Image Credit: NASA / JPL / JHUAPL / MSSS / Justin Cowart