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Balanchine’s Blues

Balanchine's Blues
The crater at the center of this scene is named for choreographer George Balanchine, as the beautiful swath of diffuse blue ejecta emanating from the crater might remind one of the famous blue tutus in one of Balanchine's most well known ballets, Serenade. What caused this asymmetric pattern of ejecta? One possibility might be that it formed in par

The crater at the center of this scene is named for choreographer George Balanchine, as the beautiful swath of diffuse blue ejecta emanating from the crater might remind one of the famous blue tutus in one of Balanchine’s most well known ballets, Serenade. What caused this asymmetric pattern of ejecta? One possibility might be that it formed in part atop a similarly sized, preexisting impact crater. This older crater excavated the lower reflectance blue deposit from beneath the surface, part of which was then redistributed by the impact that formed Balanchine. The cracks visible in the lower left of the image are part of the complex system of graben that cut the floor of the Caloris basin, in which Balanchine in located. North is up in this image.
Date acquired: June 29, 2011Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington