Mars: Colorful Bedrock in Northern Crater | NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Mars: Colorful Bedrock in Northern Crater | NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

This image covers the inside of an impact crater on the northern plains of Mars. It was intended to provide a baseline image of sand dunes on the crater floor. This could be monitored for potential motion in future pictures.

Much more than sand is visible. The dark, undulating dunes sit atop a colorful surface of exposed bedrock. Based on the crater's diameter of roughly 25 kilometers, these rocks may have been previously buried over a mile beneath the surface. The varying colors likely reflect diverse mineral compositions. (The CRISM instrument, also on MRO, has detected a variety of minerals in the neighboring larger Micoud Crater. Its rim lies about 50 kilometers east-southeast of this image.)

Excavated by impact, the colorful rocks here remain visible in part thanks to the winds that shape the overlying sand dunes. They help to sweep the crater’s center clear of surface dust.

This HiRISE image was captured when NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) was at an altitude of 306 kilometers (190 miles).

The MRO is a spacecraft designed to study the geology and climate of Mars, to provide reconnaissance of future landing sites, and to relay data from surface missions back to Earth. It was launched on August 12, 2005, and reached Mars on March 10, 2006. 

The University of Arizona, in Tucson, operates the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE). It was built by BAE Systems 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 (SMD), Washington.

For more information on MRO, visit:

science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-reconnaissance-orbiter

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Capture Date: Feb. 2, 2020
Release Date: June 28, 2025

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