NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the stunning shot of the "enigmatic" mounds on the floor of a crater in Bosphorous Planum.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Strange mounds on Martian craters floor have scientists scratching their heads.
00:08NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the stunning shot with its
00:12high-rise camera. The odd mounds are in an unnamed impact crater located in an
00:16area south of the Red Planet's Canyon region, Valles Marineris. NASA isn't sure
00:21how they formed, asking are they products of sublimation and crater
00:25inversion. Sublimation is the process where a solid goes directly to a gas,
00:29kind of like watching dry ice disappear on Earth. When cracks occur on Mars,
00:33underground ice sublimates along the surface, altering the terrain. NASA says
00:37crater inversion is seen on both Earth and Mars and is caused when erosion
00:41strips away the surrounding terrain. Inverted craters stick up above the
00:45ground instead of being a depression like most other craters.