“NASA Scientists Baffled by Mysterious Pit Photographed on Mars” – like a trout to a clickbait fly, I rise and bite at the hook. [huff]
I don’t see much mystery. There’s some ejecta off to the 2:00 position. Looks like something small but hard came in and hit almost perpendicular to the surface. I wonder if scientists can figure out anything about Martian winds from the plume.
The clarity of the image is wonderful.
The article on Huffpo says scientists are unsure whether it’s a result of some kind of collapse from below, or an impact. To me it looks like a bullet-hit.
Source Scientific American
Either that or it’s the lair of a Martian Ant Lion.
How big is it?
chigau@#1:
I don’t know!!
I assume it’s pretty big since it’s from orbit. But it would be funny if it was about 3″ across..
The article says “an estimated approximately 500 feet across”.
Marcus, that 2 o’clock discoloration doesn’t have to be ejecta. It could be winds picking up and blowing material from inside the crater. I tried using the HiRes map to look for other wind features in the area, but 87.133°S is off the bottom of the map! Personally, I think it looks more like a collapse, or like one of the Siberian craters that have been forming recently, but then again I didn’t know that granite was an igneous rock until last week.
Also, are you sure it isn’t the home of an exogorth spawn?
To me it looks analogous to what you get after digging a hole in wet sand. The water seeps out, flattens the bottom and steepens the sides of the hole. We know there is actually quite a lot of permafrost under the surface, so If this is quite far south, a meteorite could well melt the surrounding material enough to have a similar effect.
An interesting hypothesis and as a good a reason as any for a manned mission to Mars.
komarov@#5:
“Yes, Mr. Musk, we’ve picked a great spot for you to land.”