The Hills are Colorful in Juventae Chasma

There are many hills about 1 kilometer high in Juventae Chasma, which is located north of the main Valles Marineris canyon system. The floor of the canyon is covered by a sea of sand, but the hills rise above the sand.

A few adventuresome sand dunes have slowly climbed up on the hills, like that near the upper left of the enhanced-color cutout. The color diversity here is exceptional, due to varying mineral compositions and good exposures.

The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 53.6 centimeters (21.1 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 161 centimeters (63.4 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Last Updated: March 20, 2017

Editor: Martin Perez

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