PIA12220: Material Excavated by a Fresh Impact and Identified as Water Ice


Material Excavated by a Fresh Impact and Identified as Water Ice

Caption:

The bright material conspicuous in this image was excavated from below the surface and deposited nearby by a 2008 impact that dug a crater about 8 meters (26 feet) in diameter. The extent of the bright patch was large enough for the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, an instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, to obtain information confirming the material to be water ice.

This image, covering an area 50 meters (164 feet) across, was taken on Nov. 1, 2008, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on the same orbiter. The time frame for the crater-forming impact to have occurred was bracketed by before-and-after images (not shown) taken by the Thermal Emission Imaging System camera aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter on Jan. 26, 2008, and by the Context Camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Sept. 18, 2008.

The crater is at 55.57 degrees north latitude, 150.62 degrees east longitude. This image is a subframe of a full-frame image that is available online at http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_010625_2360 .

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Mars
System
Target Type Planet
Mission Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) 2001 Mars Odyssey
Instrument Host Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey
Host Type Orbiter
Instrument High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE)
Detector
Extra Keywords Color, Crater, Impact, Thermal, Water
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2009-09-24
Date in Caption 2008-01-26 2008-11-01
Image Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA12220
Identifier PIA12220