HiRISE | New Primary Craters in a Sea of Secondary Craters (ESP_020842

NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

New Primary Craters in a Sea of Secondary Craters
ESP_020842_2030 Science Theme: Impact Processes

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This image (see subimage) shows a cluster of new impact craters near 5 meters in diameter, that formed between 1977 and 2003 based on earlier images from other missions showing the presence or absence of a dark spot.

The new craters have distinctive colors and morphologies, and are surrounded by the much larger darkened spot produced by the airblast. The background terrain is nearly saturated with craters up to about 100 meters in diameter, which may be secondaries from a large (approximately 30 kilometers in diameter) well-preserved impact crater about 170 kilometers to the Northwest.

A single primary crater several kilometers or more wide can create millions of secondary craters from far-flung ejecta.

Written by: Alfred McEwen (9 February 2011)

Acquisition date
06 January 2011

Local Mars time
15:31

Latitude (centered)
22.791°

Longitude (East)
219.917°

Spacecraft altitude
284.3 km (176.7 miles)

Original image scale range
28.5 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~86 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
3.9°

Phase angle
59.6°

Solar incidence angle
63°, with the Sun about 27° above the horizon

Solar longitude
212.2°, Northern Autumn

For non-map projected images
North azimuth: 97°
Sub-solar azimuth: 335.7°

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   (153MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (160MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
Black and white
map-projected (72MB)
non-map           (77MB)

IRB color
map projected (43MB)
non-map           (141MB)

Merged IRB
map projected (50MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected (47MB)

RGB color
non map           (136MB)

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.