Tag Archives: impacts

HiRISE: Recent impact in Elysium Planitia

Posted on January 8, 2015 by rburnham

This image shows a new impact crater in Elysium Planitia that was first discovered by the Mars Context Camera (CTX, also onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) which formed between February 2012 and June 2014. It appeared as a dark streak … Continue reading →

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HiRISE: All streaks point to an impact

Posted on December 30, 2014 by rburnham

All streaks point to an impact. Beautiful Mars series.

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HiRISE: Weird crater

Posted on August 28, 2014 by rburnham

This feature has a strange appearance, as if the crater has feet with toes sticking out of two sides. Let’s try to explain this. First, there was a highly oblique impact event, with the bolide (or meteorite) striking the ground … Continue reading →

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HRSC: Craters within the Hellas basin

Posted on August 18, 2014 by rburnham

Scarring the southern highlands of Mars is one of the Solar System’s largest impact basins: Hellas, with a diameter of 2300 km and a depth of over 7 km. Hellas is thought to have formed between 3.8 and 4.1 billion … Continue reading →

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HiRISE: Multiple pows

Posted on June 24, 2014 by rburnham

Beautiful Mars series. Multiple pows. More Beautiful Mars images.

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Did big impacts turn off Mars’ dynamo?

Posted on June 19, 2014 by rburnham

Several giant impact basins on Mars have ages that suggest they formed at about the same time that the planet’s global magnetic field disappeared. Is it coincidence or is there a connection? While not claiming a direct causal connection, geophysicists … Continue reading →

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New 50-meter impact crater found on Mars

Posted on May 22, 2014 by rburnham

Researchers have discovered on the Red Planet the largest fresh meteor-impact crater ever firmly documented with before-and-after images….. The crater spans half the length of a football field… The impact that created it likely was preceded by an explosion in … Continue reading →

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HiRISE: Big block of red bedrock

Posted on April 17, 2014 by rburnham

This image covers a 26-kilometer-wide impact crater northeast of the Hellas impact basin. The crater exposes large blocks of bedrock (called “megabreccia”) in both the central uplift and in the walls of the crater. The enhanced-color subimage from the wall … Continue reading →

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HiRISE image: Streaking crater

Posted on February 20, 2014 by rburnham

Beautiful Mars series: Streaking crater. More Beautiful Mars images.

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Steam jets made pits in crater floors

Posted on September 14, 2012 by rburnham

At first glance, the floors of many large impact craters on Mars have areas that appear smooth and flat. But a closer look at some of these flat floors shows a much more rugged landscape, where one small cuplike pit … Continue reading →

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