This Is What It Looks Like Inside an Impact Crater on Mars

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the stunning shot of the "enigmatic" mounds on the floor of a crater in Bosphorous Planum.

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:04 Strange mounds on Martian craters floor

00:06 have scientists scratching their heads.

00:08 NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

00:10 captured the stunning shot with its high-rise camera.

00:13 The odd mounds are in an unnamed impact crater

00:15 located in an area south of the Red Planet's canyon region,

00:19 Valles Marineris.

00:20 NASA isn't sure how they formed, asking

00:23 are they products of sublimation and crater inversion.

00:26 Sublimation is the process where a solid goes directly

00:28 to a gas, kind of like watching dry ice disappear on Earth.

00:31 When cracks occur on Mars, underground ice

00:34 sublimates along the surface, altering the terrain.

00:37 NASA says crater inversion is seen on both Earth and Mars

00:40 and is caused when erosion strips away

00:42 the surrounding terrain.

00:43 Inverted craters stick up above the ground

00:46 instead of being a depression like most other craters.

00:49 [MUSIC PLAYING]