HiRISE | Very Recent Impact Crater (ESP_015962

NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

Very Recent Impact Crater
ESP_015962_1695 Science Theme: Impact Processes

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This image shows a very fresh-looking impact crater with extensive radial ejecta.

The crater was first seen in an image acquired with MRO’s Context Camera (CTX). The best image of this region prior to CTX was from one of the Viking Orbiters, and the crater isn't apparent in that image. This could mean that the crater formed sometime between 1976 and 1999, or there may have been more dust on the surface in 1976 or the air may have been hazy, obscuring the crater.

Based on the HiRISE image, we suspect that the crater is more than several decades old, because at full resolution we see a textured surface that is common in dust-mantled regions of Mars, but absent in the youngest craters.

Written by: Alfred McEwen (13 January 2010)

Acquisition date
22 December 2009

Local Mars time
14:42

Latitude (centered)
-10.637°

Longitude (East)
254.137°

Spacecraft altitude
254.1 km (157.9 miles)

Original image scale range
25.6 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~77 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
6.7°

Phase angle
51.6°

Solar incidence angle
46°, with the Sun about 44° above the horizon

Solar longitude
27.1°, Northern Spring

For non-map projected images
North azimuth: 97°
Sub-solar azimuth: 33.2°

JPEG
Black and white
map projected  non-map

IRB color
map projected  non-map

Merged IRB
map projected

Merged RGB
map projected

RGB color
non-map projected

JP2
Black and white
map-projected   (677MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (305MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
Black and white
map-projected (274MB)
non-map           (434MB)

IRB color
map projected (93MB)
non-map           (311MB)

Merged IRB
map projected (213MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected (209MB)

RGB color
non map           (314MB)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
B&W label
Color label
Merged IRB label
Merged RGB label
EDR products
HiView

NB
IRB: infrared-red-blue
RGB: red-green-blue
About color products (PDF)

Black & white is 5 km across; enhanced color about 1 km
For scale, use JPEG/JP2 black & white map-projected images

USAGE POLICY
All of the images produced by HiRISE and accessible on this site are within the public domain: there are no restrictions on their usage by anyone in the public, including news or science organizations. We do ask for a credit line where possible:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

POSTSCRIPT
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.