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PIA03912: Frosted Crater
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft displays a frosted crater in the Martian northern hemisphere. It was taken during the northern spring, when the CO2 ice cap starts to sublimate and recede.
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  2001 Mars Odyssey 
 Spacecraft:  2001 Mars Odyssey
 Instrument:  THEMIS 
 Product Size:  1082 x 2701 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Arizona State University 
 Producer ID:  20020802A  
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA03912.tif (1.257 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA03912.jpg (259.9 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:


(Released 2 August 2002)
This image, located near 70.6 N and 102.95 E, displays a frosted crater in the Martian northern hemisphere. This image was taken during the northern spring as the CO2 ice cap starts to sublimate and recede. Exposures of the underlying surface are prominent around topographic features because of the exposure they provide. Features that are more exposed to the relatively warm air will be sublimated away more quickly. South facing slopes in the northern hemisphere are also exposed to more sunlight, which also helps to sublimate the frost. This is why the north rim of the large crater has more exposures of the relatively dark underlying material than the southern (north facing) wall. There are also what appears to be small slides of material on the crater walls. This may be sand that becomes unstable as the frost cover thins.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Arizona State University

Image Addition Date:
2002-08-05