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Ritchey Crater's Central Uplift (Natural Colors; credits: Lunar Explorer Italia)
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The Natural Color image of this observation includes some interesting features in and near the central uplift of Ritchey Crater.
At the top is an ancient streambed, above center are very bright rocks and minerals can be seen in the Central Uplift. Large impact craters are unstable when they are formed, because their Walls are so steep.
Gravity causes the Walls to collapse toward the center of the Crater, colliding to form an Uplift or Peak. This process of Central Uplift formation can bring rocks from deep in the Crater Walls up to the surface. The angular bright blocks near the center of this image show that this process breaks the wall rocks into fragments as the Central Uplift is formed.
Mars Local Time: 16:00 (middle afternoon)
Coord. (centered): 28,5° South Lat. and 309,1° East Long.
Spacecraft altitude: 264,8 Km (such as about 165,5 miles)
Original image scale range: 26,5 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~79 cm across are resolved
Map projected scale: 25 cm/pixel
Map projection: EQUIRECTANGULAR
Emission Angle: 15,1°
Phase Angle: 46,9°
Solar Incidence Angle: 61° (meaning that the Sun is about 29° above the Local Horizon)
Solar Longitude: 194,0° (Northern Autumn)
Credits: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Additional process. and coloring: Lunar Explorer Italia
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