NASA Mars Orbiter Examines Dramatic New Crater

[Rick]

NASA Mars Orbiter Examines Dramatic New Crater

Space rocks hitting Mars excavate fresh craters at a pace of more than 200 per year, but few new Mars scars pack as much visual punch as one seen in a NASA image released today.

The scar appeared at some time between imaging of this location by the orbiter's Context Camera in July 2010 and again in May 2012. Based on apparent changes between those before-and-after images at lower resolution, researchers used HiRISE to acquire this new image on Nov. 19, 2013. The impact that excavated this crater threw some material as far as 9.3 miles (15 kilometers).

More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-037