PIA17689: Crater with Trough in Utopia Rupes
 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_2315
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA17689.tif (5.191 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA17689.jpg (856.5 kB)

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Original Caption Released with Image:

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.

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

Image Addition Date:
2013-11-13