Rabe Crater of Mars



It is in the rough-hewn southern highlands of Mars, lies hundreds of thousands of impact craters. Among them lies the unique Rabe Crater. The crater stretches to 108 kilometers (67 miles) across the Red Planet, and is halfway between the Martian equator and the South Pole, and west of the giant impact basin Hellas. Rabe is set apart from most of the craters on Mars by the fact that it has a flat floor with a pit sunk into it, plus a large field of dunes.



A pair of visible-wavelength images together with numerous infrared ones created this false-color THEMIS view that captures portions of both the pit and the dune field. The colors portray the overnight surface temperatures: bluer colors indicate cold places, redder tints warm ones. This helps scientists distinguish areas covered in fine-grain material, such as dust and sand, from those where harder and rockier ground stands exposed.



Via: Spacenews Dancebeat Info