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Posted by: Marslauncher Feb 6 2014, 02:17 PM

http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/mro/martian-impact-crater-pia17932/#.UvOXSPldWSo

A dramatic, fresh impact crater dominates this image taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Nov. 19, 2013. Researchers used HiRISE to examine this site because the orbiter's Context Camera had revealed a change in appearance here between observations in July 2010 and May 2012, bracketing the formation of the crater between those observations.
The crater spans approximately 100 feet (30 meters) in diameter and is surrounded by a large, rayed blast zone. Because the terrain where the crater formed is dusty, the fresh crater appears blue in the enhanced color of the image, due to removal of the reddish dust in that area. Debris tossed outward during the formation of the crater is called ejecta. In examining ejecta's distribution, scientists can learn more about the impact event. The explosion that excavated this crater threw ejecta as far as 9.3 miles (15 kilometers).
The crater is at 3.7 degrees north latitude, 53.4 degrees east longitude on Mars. Before-and-after imaging that brackets appearance dates of fresh craters on Mars has indicated that impacts producing craters at least 12.8 feet (3.9 meters) in diameter occur at a rate exceeding 200 per year globally. Few of the scars are as dramatic in appearance as this one.
This image is one product from the HiRISE observation catalogued as ESP_034285_1835. Other products from the same observation are available at http://uahirise.org/ESP_034285_1835 .
HiRISE is one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Science Laboratory projects for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona





Does anyone know if they have any Crism data yet on the crater? Would be fascinating to see beneath the sheets as it were on the mineralogical data uncovered.

Posted by: djellison Feb 6 2014, 06:57 PM

CRISM data is online and searchable. http://crism-map.jhuapl.edu/ couldn't be easier to use.

http://crism-map.jhuapl.edu/?map=crismmap&cps=53.47919753506902,3.443050740681647,1500000&layers=Mola%20Color%20Map,Full-Resolution%20Targeted%20Obs,Half-Resolution%20Long%20Obs,Half-Resolution%20Short%20Obs

Would suggest there isn't a CRISM observation of that exact spot yet released. I would expect a CRISM follow up to have been commanded at the same time as the HiRISE follow up following the discovery. It's just not out yet.

The nearest CRISM observation, purely by chance, about 9/10ths of a degree north.... is a follow up fresh-impact observation
http://crism-map.jhuapl.edu/details.php?data=hrs_webmap_polygons&shape=3703&x=53.39911&y=3.12226

Posted by: Marslauncher Feb 7 2014, 02:50 PM

Thanks,

I was on the CRISM website yesterday trying to get the CRISM view to work but am still playing with it. I will dig through the links you posted. I think I was more looking for a follow up paper perhaps of the picture, I will keep my eye out for the follow up results.

John

Posted by: brellis Feb 28 2014, 06:35 PM

In Emily's 2014 post http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/02261402-pretty-pictures-of-terraced-mars-craters.html the second pic shows a mosaic texture throughout the image. What causes that?

edit: I was posting this in the MRO thread. Somehow it got bumped here.

Posted by: dvandorn Feb 28 2014, 06:39 PM

Emily explains this in the cutline for a few images down. She says:

"This kind of polygonally patterned ground often forms in permafrost environments on Earth, where thermal contraction breaks the surface into polygonal shapes and then ice wedges form in between them. Thanks to Phoenix, we know that at least some of these polygonal terrains on Mars actually contain quite pure ice in the polygons themselves, quite close to the surface."

She also shows a Phoenix image that illustrates what polygonally patterned ground looks like from the surface.

-the other Doug

Posted by: brellis Feb 28 2014, 08:55 PM

Thanks Doug - I got so excited at the 2nd pic I just jumped over here immediately!

Posted by: J.J. May 22 2014, 10:40 PM

I thought this finding would fit better here than in a new thread.

NASA Mars Weathercam Helps Find Big New Crater : http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-162

Posted by: JRehling May 23 2014, 04:52 PM

A ~50-meter new crater is exciting and a priori surprising. It's a reminder that Earth's atmosphere is blocking many considerable-sized would-be impacts from happening here on a regular basis.

Maybe one day they'll drop a lander into a brand-new crater to investigate it while it's fresh. The same strategy could potentially work on any airless body, such as Europa.

Posted by: brellis May 23 2014, 07:13 PM

"Maybe one day they'll drop a lander into a brand-new crater to investigate it while it's fresh. The same strategy could potentially work on any airless body, such as Europa."

They could try it on our moon!