NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the stunning shot of the "enigmatic" mounds on the floor of a crater in Bosphorous Planum.
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:04 Strange mounds on Martian craters floor
00:06 have scientists scratching their heads.
00:08 NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
00:10 captured the stunning shot with its high-rise camera.
00:13 The odd mounds are in an unnamed impact crater
00:15 located in an area south of the Red Planet's canyon region,
00:19 Valles Marineris.
00:20 NASA isn't sure how they formed, asking
00:23 are they products of sublimation and crater inversion.
00:26 Sublimation is the process where a solid goes directly
00:28 to a gas, kind of like watching dry ice disappear on Earth.
00:31 When cracks occur on Mars, underground ice
00:34 sublimates along the surface, altering the terrain.
00:37 NASA says crater inversion is seen on both Earth and Mars
00:40 and is caused when erosion strips away
00:42 the surrounding terrain.
00:43 Inverted craters stick up above the ground
00:46 instead of being a depression like most other craters.
00:49 [MUSIC PLAYING]