Small, fresh butterfly crater on Mars

Filed under explaining science, amateur image processing, Mars, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, impact cratering

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A 300-meter crater on the flank of Nili Patera displays a spectacular set of dark rays. That and the crater's elliptical shape suggests it's an oblique impact. The image was taken as a result of a HiWish request.

NASA / JPL / UA / Emily Lakdawalla

Much more information about this image, including lots of detailed views, is available in this blog entry.

Copyright holder: Emily Lakdawalla

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Contact us to request publication permission from the copyright holder. Original image data dated on or about September 22, 2012