Astronomy Picture of the Day
November 4, 2012

Interesting Surface Feature in Nilosyrtis Region
Interesting Surface Feature in Nilosyrtis Region

Credits: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona - Credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga/Lunar Explorer Italia/IPF

Nilosyrtis Mensae is an ancient Terrain with a wonderful variety of Landforms and Rock Types. And so: what is this Circular Landform that we see here? It probably got its round shape from an Impact Crater, a VERY long time ago, but the Crater was subsequently eroded and filled in by (likely) windblown Material, and then it was eroded again, so that now it is something like a "Low Mesa", surrounded by a Boulder-rich Geological Unit.


Mars Local Time: 15:34 (Middle Afternoon)
Coord. (centered): 28,286° North Lat. and 75,424° East Long.
Spacecraft altitude: 287,8 Km (such as about 179,9 miles)
Original image scale range: 28,8 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~ 86 cm across are resolved
Map projected scale: 25 cm/pixel
Map projection: EQUIRECTANGULAR
Emission Angle: 8,5°
Sun-Mars MRT (or "Phase") Angle: 50,4°
Solar Incidence Angle: 59° (meaning that the Sun was about 31° above the Local Horizon at the time the picture was taken)
Solar Longitude: 180,1° (Northern Fall - Southern Spring)
Credits: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Additional process. and coloring: Lunar Explorer Italia


This picture (which is a NASA - Original Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter EDM color frame, identified by the serial n. ESP_028957_2085) has been additionally processed and then re-colorized in Absolute Natural Colors (such as the colors that a human eye would actually perceive if someone were onboard the NASA - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and then looked down, towards the Surface of Mars), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team.


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