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Exposing Colorful Deep Bedrock

This image, acquired on December 25, 2019 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows a crater south of Aurorae Chaos has a central pit exposing bedrock units with diverse colors, indicating diverse rock compositions.
PIA23737
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
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Description

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Map Projected Browse Image
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Large impacts produce uplifted central structures, either peaks, or pits, or an uplifted peak with a central pit. This crater south of Aurorae Chaos has a central pit exposing bedrock units with diverse colors, indicating diverse rock compositions.

This crater includes clay-rich minerals identified by the CRISM instrument on MRO. See this enhanced-color cutout over the eastern half of the central pit.

The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. (The original image scale is 53.4 centimeters [21.0 inches] per pixel [with 2 x 2 binning]; objects on the order of 160 centimeters [63.0 inches] across are resolved.) North is up.

This is a stereo pair with ESP_044930_1690.

The University of Arizona, in Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.