Tangential Craters within Ptolemaeus Crater
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Tangential Craters within Ptolemaeus Crater
ESP_020065_1335  Science Theme: Impact Processes
This image shows two small craters, just touching on their rims, in the much larger Ptolmaeus Crater, which is located in the Martian Southern Hemisphere. These craters are called “tangential craters.”

The more degraded and filled-in crater is approximately 3 kilometers in diameter, and there is an unusual feature near the center. A closeup shows up the feature is approximately 76 meters wide and 164 meters long. This feature is also possibly a substantially oblique impact crater, but its origin remains unknown.

Written by: Livio Tornabene and Kayle Hansen (narration: Tre Gibbs)  (4 February 2015)
 
Acquisition date
06 November 2010

Local Mars time
15:48

Latitude (centered)
-45.958°

Longitude (East)
201.733°

Spacecraft altitude
251.7 km (156.5 miles)

Original image scale range
50.4 cm/pixel (with 2 x 2 binning) so objects ~151 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
50 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
2.8°

Phase angle
71.5°

Solar incidence angle
69°, with the Sun about 21° above the horizon

Solar longitude
176.8°, Northern Summer

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  97°
Sub-solar azimuth:  32.0°
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non-map           (103MB)

IRB color
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non-map           (99MB)

Merged IRB
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Merged RGB
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RGB color
non map           (87MB)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
B&W label
Color label
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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

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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.