An
unblinking eye stares from this crater image captured by the Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter.
This is one of many
Martian craters sitting in the northern lowlands area of Nilosyrtis, a region that
marks the transition from the southern highlands on the Red Planet. Each crater
center contains heavily eroded mounds of material that probably once buried
craters in the region.
Closer
inspection reveals scattered rocks that may have accumulated from distant
impacts on the planet's surface. This marks a passage of time suggesting that
the mounds are ancient sediments, perhaps once deposited in a primordial sea
when water ran on Mars. The radial filaments or "eyelashes" probably
come from more recent deposits of dust and sand trapped between the older
mounds and crater walls.
— NASA/JPL/University of Arizona and SPACE.com Staff
Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
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