An image of a Mars crater was captured from orbit by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft in April 2022 and was released recently.
As specified in a Digital Trends report, the image depicts a more massive crater, almost 19 miles across a region identified as "Aonia Terra."
The Martian surface is dotted with craters, created when meteoroids, comets, or asteroids smashed into the planet and caused large impact marks.
Unlike Earth, which has few impact craters because of its tectonic processes on Mars, such craters stay for billions of years.
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Landscape Surrounding the Crater
The landscape surrounding the crater reveals channels gouged into the surface, which were likely created when water flowed in rivers through Mars billions of years back.
In an ESA report, the agency wrote that the channels appear partially filled with a dark material, and some sites appear to be raised above the land around them.
It also said there are various possible explanations for this. Probably erosion-resistant sediment settled at the bottom of the channels when water flowed through them. Or probably, the channels were filled in with lava water in the history of Mars.
The image was captured using the High Resolution Stereo Camera or HRSC of Mars Express and is a true-color image which means it's showing what a human eye would see.
The data gathered was used to develop a 3D terrain model, which enabled researchers to produce a view of the crater from a different angle.
Aonia Terra
Investigating impact craters is essential as it enables scientists to calculate the geological ages of various features on the planet.
The Aonia Terra region in the southern hemisphere, described in a NASA report, is an ideal place for such a study as it boasts a lot f large craters, including the Lowell crater, which is more than 120 miles across.
The Lowell crater is named after astronomer Percival Lowell in the 1800s, who famously thought that he observed canals on the Red Planet, resulting in an explosion of interest in the notion of life on Mars among the public.
Though Lowell's theories were disproven and his observations turned out to be "optical illusions," the astronomer continues to impact science fiction writing and science because of his passion for constructing observatories.
Mars Exploration
Mars Express has been revolving around the Red Planet since the 2000s, imaging the surface of Mars' surface, mapping its minerals, and determining the construction and circulation of its tenuous atmosphere. It also probes underneath the Martian crust and explores how various marvels interact in the Martian environment.
The High Resolution Stereo Camera of the mission, accountable for these new images, has shown much about the diverse surface features of Mars, with recent images revealing everything from wind-sculpted ridges and grooves to impact craters, volcanoes, tectonic faults, ancient lava pools, and river channels.
Related information about the Mars crater is shown on Blast World Mysteries' YouTube video below:
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Check out more news and information on Mars in Science Times.