Today's Image of Mars comes from HiRISE and shows a possible
future landing site in Antoniadi Crater, a 394km long crater on
Syrtis Major Planum. It is evidenced that Antoniadi Crater once
had rivers and lakes, as evidenced by the inverted features,
like riverbeds. Inverted features are formed when the sediment
deposited by water is harder than the surrounding terrain. Over
billions of years erosion wore down the surrounding terrain, but
because the lake and riverbeds were more resistant to erosion
they were reduced much less, thus creating inverted features.
The fact that there was once flowing water in Antoniadi Crater
makes it a prime target for future missions to Mars. This
particular patch shows a particular candidate landing site in
the crater. It was chosen because it has been observed to have
relatively flat terrain and is close to features of interest.
Clicking on this image will take you to other showcased images
of potential landing sites for future missions to Mars because
HiRISE has not yet provi