Schiaparelli Crater on Mars

Schiaparelli Crater - NASA
The many layers on the floor of the Schiaparelli Crater on Mars

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has been dutifully mapping and photographing the Mars surface since its arrival at the red planet in 2006. This picture shows the very shallow Schiaparelli Crater (named after Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli), which is a 460 kilometer (286 mile) wide structure on Mars. Most of the floor of the Schiaparelli crater is covered by a thin layer of dust, but in places where there are patches of dark sand, there is also well-exposed bedrock.

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