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Twelve-Meter-Wide Crater Excavates Ice on Mars

Sept. 24, 2009
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter excavates ice in a twelve-meter-wide crater.

This 12-meter-wide (39-foot-wide) crater in mid-latitude northern Mars was created by an impact that occurred between July 3, 2004, and June 28, 2008, as bracketed by before-and-after images not shown here. The images shown here were taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Nov. 19, 2008, (left) and on Jan. 8, 2009. Each image is 35 meters (115 feet) across.

The impact that dug the crater excavated water ice from below the surface. It is the bright material visible in this pair of images. This crater is at 46.16 degrees north latitude, 188.51 degrees east longitude.

These images are subframes of full-frame images that are available online at at http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_010861_2265 and http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_011494_2265.

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