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Madison Hughes and the aging of Endeavour Madison Hughes, a PhD candidate at Washington University St. Louis, (right) used a
landscape evolution model known as MARSSIM to investigate the degradational history
of Endeavour Crater to see how it has “aged” over the last two billion years or so. She
chose the nearby, fresh-looking Bopolu Crater, because of its similar diameter, younger
age, and relatively fresh appearance as an analog for Endeavour and ran what turned
out to be hundreds of simulations. The image of the craters (left) was taken by THEMIS,
the thermal emission imaging system, onboard Mars Odyssey. NASA / JPL-Caltech (left); Collection of M. Hughes (right)