A meteorite impact that excavated this crater on Mars exposed bright ice that had been hidden just beneath the surface at this location: latitude 43.9 degrees north, longitude 204.3 degrees east. The 100-meter scale bar at lower right is 109 yards.

The image is an excerpt from an observation by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Jan. 30, 2012. Additional image products from the same observation are at http://www.uahirise.org/ESP_025840_2240. The image has been processed to allow details to be seen in both the bright ice and the darker soil.

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 Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.