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PIA19304: Craters Near Nilokeras Scopulus
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of craters near Nilokeras Scopulus shows two pits partially filled with lumpy material, probably trapped dust that blew in from the atmosphere.
 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_039432_2115 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA19304.tif (5.191 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA19304.jpg (495.4 kB)  

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This image shows two pits partially filled with lumpy material, probably trapped dust that blew in from the atmosphere.

The pits themselves resemble impact craters, but they are part of a chain of similar features aligned with nearby faults, so they could be collapse features instead. Note also the tracks left by rolling boulders at the bottom of the craters.

Nilokeras Scopulus is the name for the cliff, about 756 kilometers long, in the northern hemisphere of Mars where these craters are located. It was named based on an albedo (brightness) feature mapped by astronomer E. M. Antoniadi in 1930.

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.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Image Addition Date:
2015-03-04