Collapse Pit
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Collapse Pit
ESP_067605_0920  Science Theme: Polar Geology
Do you see a dome or a pit? Sometimes it is hard to tell! In this case, the answer is that we’re looking at a pit, if the title didn’t already give it away.

Levity aside, we can tell this is a pit because we know what direction the sunlight is coming from and which side should be in shadow. This pit has formed on the south polar layered deposits. Why did it collapse? That is the real question to be answered.

Written by: Candy Hansen (narration: Tre Gibbs)  (16 April 2021)
 
Acquisition date
28 December 2020

Local Mars time
20:22

Latitude (centered)
-87.902°

Longitude (East)
245.981°

Spacecraft altitude
245.0 km (152.3 miles)

Original image scale range
49.6 cm/pixel (with 2 x 2 binning) so objects ~149 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
50 cm/pixel

Map projection
Polarstereographic

Emission angle
8.8°

Phase angle
87.9°

Solar incidence angle
82°, with the Sun about 8° above the horizon

Solar longitude
338.7°, Northern Winter

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  176°
Sub-solar azimuth:  50.6°
JPEG
Black and white
map projected  non-map

IRB color
map projected  non-map

Merged IRB
map projected

Merged RGB
map projected

RGB color
non-map projected

JP2
Black and white
map-projected   (202MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (120MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
Black and white
map-projected  (113MB)
non-map           (141MB)

IRB color
map projected  (64MB)
non-map           (129MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (216MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (193MB)

RGB color
non map           (114MB)
BONUS
4K (TIFF)
8K (TIFF)
10K (TIFF)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
B&W label
Color label
Merged IRB label
Merged RGB label
EDR products
HiView

NB
IRB: infrared-red-blue
RGB: red-green-blue
About color products (PDF)

Black & white is 5 km across; enhanced color about 1 km
For scale, use JPEG/JP2 black & white map-projected images

USAGE POLICY
All of the images produced by HiRISE and accessible on this site are within the public domain: there are no restrictions on their usage by anyone in the public, including news or science organizations. We do ask for a credit line where possible:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

POSTSCRIPT
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.