Starship Asterisk*

Alfred McEwen wrote:

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Getting Luki (ESP_028368_1500)

This image covers Luki Crater in the Southern highlands. This crater formed on the floor of Uzboi Vallis between Hale and Holden craters, near the confluence with Nanedi Vallis.

The central region of the crater consists of uplifted ancient bedrock with a great variety of rock types, as shown by the color diversity.

This is a stereo pair with ESP_028724_1500.

Lazslo Kestay wrote:

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Enigmatic Pits and Rises in Noctis Labyrinthus (ESP_028410_1710)

This image covers a depression within Noctis Labyrinthus, from rim to rim. Noctis Labyrinthus is a maze of troughs and depressions located at the head of Valles Marineris, the largest valley in the Solar System.

All these features are indicative of the crust of Mars having been pulled apart, exposing the deep interior of the planet. The depressions are also places where sediments of all sorts would tend to accumulate. When we see strange features on the floor of one of these depressions, it is not immediately clear if it is because of something from deep down being exposed or something relatively young having been deposited here.

The enhanced color part of the image suggests that the material on the floor of this particular depression is different than is seen in the walls of the depression.

This is a stereo pair with ESP_028766_1710.

Lazslo Kestay wrote:

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Topography of a Flood Carved Channel (ESP_028473_1840)

This image is part of a stereo pair that allows one to look at the walls of a flood carved channel in 3D. By examining the walls in such detail, we hope to understand the process by which the channel was carved.

For example, in this location, there are a series of benches or terraces high up on the channel wall. By looking at the topography it should be possible to tell if (1) these are produced by sediments being left at these elevations, (2) the erosive fluid dropped in stages and thus did more erosion at certain levels, or (3) the wall of the channel was slumping inward as a series of landslides.

This is a stereo pair with ESP_028196_1840.

Patrick Russell wrote:

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A Pedestal Crater in the Northern Mid-Latitudes (ESP_028598_2230)

This image is of a pedestal crater at 43 degrees north. The lobate pattern around the circular crater is where the crater ejecta landed. This area is now raised above the level of the surrounding plains, forming a mesa, or plateau, with the crater at the center.

This suggests that at one time the surface of the whole region was at this level. The ejecta from the crater covered the area near the crater and protected it, while the surrounding region was eroded away, leaving the crater high standing. This material may have been removed because it was loose and/or cemented with ice.

Pedestal craters are particularly interesting because some ice may still be present in the mesa, protected by the ejecta surface.