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| Self-secondary of a bright, relatively fresh crater northwest of Mare Orientale, in the wider highlands greatly affected by that basin-forming impact. The unnamed primary crater (between Lucretius C and Grachev craters, see below) is visible from a great altitude because of its relative low optical maturity. Full-resolution, 530 meter-wide field of view from LROC NAC observation M1132582647R, LRO orbit 19028, August 31, 2013; 9.47° incidence angle, resolution 92 cm, from 106.13 km over 3.09°S, 246.92°E [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University]. |
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Today's Featured Image highlights the spectacular fresh ejecta from an unnamed crater (1.05 km; 3.06°S, 297°E), approximately 750 km northwest of Mare Orientale.
Subsequent impacts (possibly including self-secondaries) excavate through the ejecta sheet, leaving small craters, mostly less than 50 meters in diameter, and tiny ejecta splashes.
Some are lower and others are higher in reflectance than their surroundings, resulting in a variety of contrasts against the bright, optically immature ejecta field of the primary crater.
Subsequent impacts (possibly including self-secondaries) excavate through the ejecta sheet, leaving small craters, mostly less than 50 meters in diameter, and tiny ejecta splashes.
Some are lower and others are higher in reflectance than their surroundings, resulting in a variety of contrasts against the bright, optically immature ejecta field of the primary crater.
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| Bright, relatively fresh primary to highlighted secondary crater at upper left northwest of Orientale basin, between Lucretius C and Grachev. 4.54 km-wide field of view from full-width of LROC NAC observation M1132582647R, visible HERE. [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University]. |
In the opening image, many small high reflectance craters (~10 m) are clustered at the lower right side of the image, while nearby mid-sized craters (~50 m) are darker than their surroundings. The largest crater's ejecta (center-left in this image) is composed of two layers, the brighter layer on top of the darker layer.
These reflectance variations are likely due to the different excavation depths into the low and high reflectance surface and subsurface deposits. The mid-sized craters probably reached the original low reflectance materials below the upper higher reflectance ejecta sheet (from the unnamed ~1km diameter crater). The largest crater likely excavated high reflectance substrate that is also exposed on the unnamed crater's wall.
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| Full-width mosaic, 13.357 km-wide field of view from a mosaic of both the left and right frames of LROC observation M1132582647. Larger reproductions are available HERE [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University]. |
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| 250 meter resolution view shows the high visibility of the small crater of interest (1.05 km; 3.03°S, 297°E), against the ancient highlands, deeply scared by the energy of the Orientale basin-forming-impact. LROC Quickman WAC natural color beta over 100 meter global mosaic [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University]. |
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| Context for high resolution LROC NAC view of bright fresh 1.05 km crater (3.06°S, 297°E) northwest of Mare Orientale [NASA/GSFC/SVS/Arizona State University]. |
View full-width mosaic, HERE.
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