PIA17608: Fresh Crater Exposing Buried Ice on Mid-Latitude Mars


Fresh Crater Exposing Buried Ice on Mid-Latitude Mars

Caption:

A meteorite impact that excavated this crater on Mars exposed bright ice that had been hidden just beneath the surface at this location: latitude 43.9 degrees north, longitude 204.3 degrees east. The 100-meter scale bar at lower right is 109 yards.

The image is an excerpt from an observation by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Jan. 30, 2012. Additional image products from the same observation are at http://www.uahirise.org/ESP_025840_2240 . The image has been processed to allow details to be seen in both the bright ice and the darker soil.

Background Info:

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Mars
System
Target Type Planet
Mission Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
Instrument Host Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Host Type Orbiter
Instrument High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE)
Detector
Extra Keywords Color, Crater, Impact
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2013-12-10
Date in Caption 2012-01-30
Image Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17608
Identifier PIA17608