Changes at the Site of a New Impact Cluster
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Changes at the Site of a New Impact Cluster
ESP_016160_1870  Science Theme: Aeolian Processes
Nineteen new impact sites were discovered by the Mars Orbital Camera on the Mars Global Surveyor, and HiRISE has re-imaged these sites to learn more about them, including detection of many smaller craters since the objects often break up in the atmosphere and make clusters of craters.

The biggest cluster—shown here—with over 1,000 craters, formed between September 2005 and February 2006, over the dusty region between Ascraeus and Pavonis Mons, giant shield volcanoes. We have imaged some of these new impact sites multiple times to look for changes, which provides information on aeolian (wind-driven) processes.

Many of these impact sites are remarkably unchanged over several years time, but the site shown here has changed dramatically. In the subimage are cutouts of the impact cluster. Blowing winds through the pass between shield volcanoes has darkened some regions and brightened others, probably largely by removing and depositing dust.

Written by: Alfred McEwen  (17 February 2010)
 
Acquisition date
06 January 2010

Local Mars time
14:50

Latitude (centered)
6.996°

Longitude (East)
247.924°

Spacecraft altitude
265.3 km (164.9 miles)

Original image scale range
27.4 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~82 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
15.1°

Phase angle
28.6°

Solar incidence angle
42°, with the Sun about 48° above the horizon

Solar longitude
34.2°, Northern Spring

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  97°
Sub-solar azimuth:  19.8°
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Anaglyph details page

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
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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.