4 August 2006
This This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a
bowl-shaped crater on the martian northern plains with a mysterious
radiant pattern of zones with and without boulders and rocks. The rocky
areas are seen as dark dots, the rock-free areas lack these spots. Craters
like this are fairly common on the northern plains; some also occur at a
similar latitudes in the southern hemisphere. When the Mars Odyssey
Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) team first saw these, earlier
this decade, they called them"pinwheel craters" (see PIA05611). The exact cause
of the boulder and streak distribution is uncertain.
Location near: 61.3°N, 88.4°W
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi)
Illumination from: lower left
Season: Northern Spring
