Amazing Giordano Bruno

Pooled impact melt within Giordano Bruno crater
Beautiful complex floor of Giordano Bruno crater. M1452055478LR, acquired 2023-10-16, incidence angle 65°, slew angle 0°,  phase angle  64°, spacecraft altitude 96 kilometers, image width  3750 meters, pixel scale reduced ~3x [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University/Intuitive Machines].

 

Spectacular landforms are the norm for the floor of Giordano Bruno crater (21-kilometer diameter, 35.969°N, 102.893°E). The curious whorl (left) likely resulted from a landslide into a pool of impact melt, which caused a circular current in the molten rock as it was pushed up and aside. The enormous boulder (upper right) is 130 meters in diameter. Note the striations visible on the sides of this giant boulder. Hop to an oblique view of this same impact melt pool.

Full resolution detail of opening image focusing on large boulders
Full resolution version of the opening image focusing on the enormous blocks littering the floor. Cropped from M1452055478LR, image width  1300 meters [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University/Intuitive Machines].

The crater's pristine appearance is due to its relatively young age. Age estimates range from about 1000 years ago to 10 million years ago. The most likely estimate is about one million years. Geologists could quickly answer the age question by returning a sample of the impact melt rock for radiometric age dating. Imagine images beamed back to Earth from inside the crater -  the walls rise more than 4000 meters (>13,000 feet) from the floor!

Complete NAC image pair M1452055478LR [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University/Intuitive Machines].

 

Related Featured Images

How Spectacular is this View?!?!

Giordano Bruno, The Big Picture

Very Oblique View of Giordano Bruno

Sunset Over Giordano Bruno

Outside of Giordano Bruno

Fragmented Impact Melt

Delicate Patterns in Giordano Bruno Ejecta

Impact Melt Flows on Giordano Bruno

Published by Mark Robinson on 20 January 2025