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A Crater on the South Polar Layered Deposits

April 3, 2019
This image acquired on January 26, 2019 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, is part of a campaign to image potential impact craters in the south polar layered deposits (ice cap).
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This image is part of a campaign to image potential impact craters in the south polar layered deposits (ice cap). This feature looks like a strong candidate for an impact crater because it is very circular are still has a raised rim.

The sizes and densities of impact craters provide an estimate for the age of the landscape, which in turn provides a minimum age for the icy layers.

The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. (The original image scale is 24.8 centimeters [9.8 inches] per pixel [with 1 x 1 binning]; objects on the order of 75 centimeters [29.5 inches] across are resolved.) North is up.

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

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