06.21.2017 A.I. laser targeting
06.01.2017 Diagram of Lake Stratification on Mars
05.22.2017 NASA's Mars 2020 Rover Artist's Concept #1
05.15.2017 Putting Martian 'Tribulation' Behind
05.15.2017 From 'Tribulation' to 'Perseverance' on Mars
04.20.2017 Chemical Laptop Team
04.20.2017 Subcritical Water Extractor
04.20.2017 Chemical Laptop
04.20.2017 Atacama Landscape
03.30.2017 Measuring Mars' Atmosphere Loss
03.29.2017 Lifetime Achievement Award to Theisinger
03.29.2017 A Decade of Compiling the Sharpest Mars Map
03.21.2017 Break in Raised Tread on Curiosity Wheel
03.17.2017 COBALT/JPL team
03.09.2017 Back-to-Back Martian Dust Storms
02.27.2017 Swirling Dust in Gale Crater, Mars, Sol 1613
02.27.2017 Dust Devil Passes Near Martian Sand Dune
02.27.2017 Sand Moving Under Curiosity, One Day to Next
02.08.2017 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Observes Changes
01.26.2017 Mono Lake
01.25.2017 'Wing' Dike of Hardened Lava in New Mexico
01.25.2017 Blade-Like Martian Walls Outline Polygons
01.23.2017 Spirit And Opportunity By The Numbers
01.10.2017 Mars 2020 Rover - Artist's Concept
01.06.2017 Earth and Its Moon, as Seen From Mars
12.13.2016 Now and Long Ago at Gale Crater, Mars
12.13.2016 Where's Boron? Mars Rover Detects It
11.15.2016 Schiaparelli Impact Site on Mars, Stereo
11.03.2016 Schiaparelli Impact Site on Mars, in Color
10.17.2016 MAVEN Captures Rapid Cloud Formation
10.17.2016 Mars' Nightside Atmosphere
10.17.2016 Ultraviolet Image Near Mars' South Pole
10.17.2016 Ultraviolet Mars Reveals Cloud Formation
10.05.2016 Dust Haze Hiding the Martian Surface in 2001
10.04.2016 Test of Lander Vision System for Mars 2020
10.03.2016 A Sharpened Ultraviolet View of Mars
Dark Rimless Pits in the Tharsis RegionTwo dark, rimless pits are located to the northwest of Ascraeus Mons in the Tharsis volcanic region of Mars. These pits are approximately 180 meters (591 feet) and 310 meters (1,017 feet) in diameter. They are situated in the midst of a wispy, dark, boomerang-shaped deposit.
The pits are aligned with what appear to be larger, degraded depressions. The wispy deposit may consist of dark material blown out of the pits or from some other source.
Figure A and Figure B are close-ups of the two pits. These images have been highly processed to reveal the surface details within each pit. The eastern and smaller of the two pits (A) contains boulders and sediment along its walls and brighter, wind-shaped dune sediments on its floor. The larger, western pit (B) contains sediment and boulders with faint dune-like patterns visible on the deepest part of the floor. Both pits have steep eastern walls and more gently sloped western walls that transition gradually into the pit floor. Steep, resistant ledges containing boulders that overhang and obscure the pit floors form the eastern walls.
Careful study of the walls and floors of the pits, as well as of the surrounding terrain, will help unravel the complicated series of processes that must have been responsible for their formation and subsequent modification.
This image covers an area about 6 kilometers (4 miles) wide. It is one product from a Nov. 1, 2010, HiRISE observation catalogued as ESP_019997_1975, of an area centered at 17.2 degrees north latitude, 247.6 degrees east longitude. Other image products from this observation are available at http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_019997_1975.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona