A Hawk in the Landscape

Another picture from the ever popular Pareidolia thread on the forum: a Hawk-like feature in Joliot Crater, a 164 km-wide large, old, fairly eroded far side crater on the eastern limb. Part of the crater is just visible from Earth during a favourable libration. The hawk shape has been produced by brighter material overlying darker regolith – probably the result of several impacts excavating higher albedo material. A small fresh impact forms the beak.

posted by kodemunkey

Here’s the view of Joliot from ACT-REACT Quick Map. It’s flooded with lava and contains several ghost craters which are lava flooded craters only visible under the right lighting conditions as raised rings.

25.8°N 93.1°E

The crater is named in honour of Frédéric Joliot-Curie who married Marie Curie’s daughter and together they were awarded the Nobel prize for Chemistry in 1935 for their work on the structure of the atom.

Here’s the NAC image to explore further: M106260230RC.