Actually it's Victoria crater on Mars, as seen by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It the one the robot Opportunity has been exploring for the last year or so. If you click on the image you can acually see the rover's tracks off to the left.
The weblike structures at the borrom of the crater are sand dunes.
Thanks to Bad Astonomy for the picture. And to NASA, of course, for actually taking the picture.
6 comments:
Cool!
Was looking at the Odyssey of the Mind website (cool program for kids to encourage "outside the box" thinking) and one of the challenges is sponsored by NASA. Read it to the Eldest ("design a vehicle that can explore, roll over things, pick up things" etc I forget exactly what it said) and said, "gee, what could they possibly want a vehicle like that for" and the kid smiled and said "to explore on other planets" -- told him he's got to get his school to sign up so he can have the opportunity to design the next generation of space rovers!
Wow. My wife's first thought was "coral".
I thought it was one of those sand worms, coming up to swallow me.
This is very cool. It looks a lot like some sort of mushroom to me.
Wow.. that's incredible. I was thinking like Laurita.. a shroom.
That Odyssey of the Mind site is pretty cool. I keep telling the girls the timing is perfect for them to be the first humans to set foot on Mars (so study your Math and Science!). That, or play shortstop for the Mets.
Hadn't thought of coral, Gordo. It does, absolutely.
Meno, it would be so cool for a big scary sandworm to come barreling out of that hole. Chomp!
Laurita, nice to see you again. yes, it's very much like a mushroom.
Hiilary, isn't it strange how even on two different worlds nature keeps using the same forms and patterns? Mushrooms, craters; craters, mushrooms.
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