At the north pole, there's a central cap of frozen carbon dioxide and/or water, and then a little further out from that, after a bare area, more streaks of frozen materials. I wonder if that's because of the relative elevations of those areas?
And that lighter circular spot, a little to the right of center, between the two red horizontal (almost) markers, is very probably Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system yet discovered. About 600 Km across, 20 Km high, with a caldera in the center of some 80 Km in diameter. Big. And thankfully inactive. In fact, it hasn't been active for a very long time. It's a monument to Mars destruction after it was hit by that meteoroid which punctured its crust over 3.5 billion years ago. The real movie about Mars and its history would need to be mostly animation, showing it being hit by that meteoroid, puncturing its crust, and then exploding inside as the frozen meteoroid contacted the molten core, and created a superheated expansion which literally destroyed the planet.
Those photos from the Mars Rovers showing cracked and broken rocks everywhere, and some of those close-ups from Curiosity showing tiny little balls of bluish glass-like material permeating other materials suggests a very intense and very hot explosion of some kind. The result of an impact? Very likely.
And can someone explain why the calculated mean density of Mars and our Moon are very similar, yet unlike those of Earth, Venus, and Mercury? The calculated mean density of Mars is 3.93 grams per cubic centimeter, and that of our Moon 3.346. The calculated mean density of Earth is 5.52 grams per cubic centimeter. Venus is 5.20, and Mercury is 5.43. If we were using those numbers to establish a relationship between our Moon and one of our planets, which one would you pick? Or do I really need to ask?
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