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PIA05846: Small, Bouldery Crater
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows a relatively young impact crater located in southeastern Arabia Terra on Mars. Large boulders, many of them bigger than a typical house, can be seen in the ejecta blanket and on the crater floor.
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) 
 Spacecraft:  Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter
 Instrument:  Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) 
 Product Size:  1672 x 2508 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Malin Space Science Systems 
 Producer ID:  MOC2-712  
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA05846.tif (4.199 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA05846.jpg (791.4 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:

30 April 2004
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a relatively young impact crater located in southeastern Arabia Terra near 4.8°N, 313.9°W. It is about 1 kilometer (about six tenths of a mile) in diameter, roughly the size of the famous Meteor Crater in northern Arizona, U.S.A. Indeed, the Arizona crater may once have looked very similar to this, but erosion on Earth has been more vigorous than on the modern Mars. Large boulders, many of them bigger than a typical house, can be seen in the ejecta blanket and on the crater floor. Fine, bright dust, common throughout Arabia Terra, has thinly mantled all but the steepest slopes. The image is illuminated by sunlight from the left/upper left. The picture covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Image Addition Date:
2004-04-30