A Small Mid-Latitude Crater
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
A Small Mid-Latitude Crater
ESP_030916_1250  Science Theme: Impact Processes
This image shows a small impact crater, about 400 meters (440 yards) wide. This crater is in the southern mid-latitudes, at about 55 degrees south.

On Mars, fresh-looking craters are rare in the middle and high latitudes. Asteroids hit the surface there just as often as at the equator, but the craters are buried by frost and dust, or re-worked by ground ice expanding and contracting as it warms up and cools off each year.

Although this crater looks fresh, it is already showing signs that it is being filled in and eroded. Eventually, all that will be left is a shallow circular pit and perhaps a ring of boulders where the rim and ejecta used to be.

Written by: Colin Dundas (narration: Tre Gibbs)  (27 March 2013)
 
Acquisition date
01 March 2013

Local Mars time
14:53

Latitude (centered)
-54.506°

Longitude (East)
240.141°

Spacecraft altitude
248.3 km (154.3 miles)

Original image scale range
25.1 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~75 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
8.9°

Phase angle
51.1°

Solar incidence angle
43°, with the Sun about 47° above the horizon

Solar longitude
273.8°, Northern Winter

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  96°
Sub-solar azimuth:  30.5°
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RGB color
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IRB: infrared-red-blue
RGB: red-green-blue
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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.