Two of the 20 new impact craters determined by the Mars Global Surveyor's
Mars Orbiter Camera science operations team to have formed between May
1999 and March 2006 occur at a location that the narrow-angle camera
imaged previously. This is surprising given that the narrow-angle camera,
with its 3-kilometer-wide (1.9-mile-wide) field of view, has only covered
about 5.2 percent of the Martian surface. One of the two craters that
formed where the camera had already taken a narrow-angle image is featured
here.
Figure A: The colorized image and figure A show sub-frames of an image
acquired on March 13, 2006. This image has been colorized using a table
derived from the colors of Mars as seen by the Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera. The impact
site is located near 27.3 degrees north latitude, 91.8 degrees west
longitude, on the upper north flank of the Martian volcano Ulysses Patera.
Fine details are evident at the impact site, showing how the blast moved
dust around and interacted with craters and other small obstacles on the
ground. The crater has a diameter of about 19.8 meters (about 65 feet).
Figure B: The second figure shows before-and-after narrow-angle camera
views of the impact site. The before image was acquired on Feb. 24, 2002.
The after image was acquired on March 13, 2006.
Other images from Mars-orbiting spacecraft cover this location and show
the impact site, including data from the Mars Express High Resolution
Stereo Camera and Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System. These
other data help constrain when the impact occurred. The last orbiter image
obtained before the impact was taken on April 18, 2003. The first orbiter
image that showed the impact feature was obtained on Feb. 7, 2004. Thus,
the impact occurred between those dates, April 18, 2003, and Feb. 7, 2004.
The Mars Global Surveyor mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space
Science, Washington, by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif., a division of the California Institute of Technology, also in
Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operates
the spacecraft. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., built and
operates the Mars Orbiter Camera.
For more information about images from the Mars Orbiter Camera, see
http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html.
