MRO has discovered over 700 new impact sites on Mars. Often, a bolide breaks apart in the atmosphere and makes a tight cluster of new craters.

Here we see just two new craters, both with the same distinctive pattern of relatively blue (less red) ejecta surrounded by a dark blast zone (where dust has been removed or disturbed), and with arcing patterns extending northwest and northeast. This pattern indicates an oblique impact angle with the bolide coming from the north.

ID: ESP_053653_1850
date: 6 January 2018
altitude: 272 km

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_053653_1850
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
#Mars #science #NASA