PIA17671: Hints of an Ancient Shoreline in Southern Isidis Planitia
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
 Spacecraft:  Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
 Instrument:  HiRISE
 Product Size:  2880 x 1800 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  University of Arizona/HiRISE-LPL
 Other  
Information: 
Other products from image ESP_033242_1845
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA17671.tif (15.56 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA17671.jpg (1.058 MB)

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Original Caption Released with Image:

This area -- known as the Deuteronilus contact of the Isidis Basin -- has been interpreted as a possible ancient shoreline. There are also suggestions that this contact is of volcanic origin.

One direct benefit of a high resolution image is the ability to monitor the detailed morphology of the contact to help to determine whether this formation is the result of an ocean or of a volcanic filling of the Isidis Basin.

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.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Image Addition Date:
2013-11-06