Image of the Day
Vast and Cool and Unsympathetic
Collapsed rock layers formed this Aureum Chaos region of irregular knobs and hills on Mars, as seen by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The outcropping reveals multiple rock layers with different colors and textures. The bottommost layer is light-toned and has little internal structure other than occasional fractures. Above that sits a darker layering of rock with a broken appearance, followed by finer stepped layers. The very top of the outcrop has knobs and spires that may be the eroded remnants from the top of the former rock mesa.
The origin of the rocks remains a mystery, but could have come from several sources. Dust or volcanic ash may have settled from the Martian atmosphere, wind-blown sand could have accumulated, or perhaps sediment from a long-gone lake was left behind.
- VIDEO: Looking For Life in All the Right Places
- VIDEO: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
- GALLERY: Ice on Mars
— NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
