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Mars Weathercam Helps Find Big, New Crater

May 22, 2014

Scientists using NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter found a fresh meteor-impact crater, and by golly it's big. It's the largest ever located anywhere by using before-and-after pictures.

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A region known as "Cape York" on the western rim of Endeavour Crater, where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity worked for 20 months, is highlighted in these images.
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A region known as "Cape York" on the western rim of Endeavour Crater, where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity worked for 20 months, is highlighted in these images.
'Cape York' Explored
Download a PDF of the Mars as Art Booklet.
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Mars as Art
Mars as Art (2013)
Polygonal Ridge in Gordii Dorsum Region, Mars
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Polygonal Ridge in Gordii Dorsum Region, Mars
Polygonal Ridge in Gordii Dorsum Region, Mars
This map shows the route driven by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity through the 56th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Oct. 2, 2012).
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This map shows the route driven by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity through the 56th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Oct. 2, 2012).
Curiosity's Travels Through Sol 56
This view of Martian surface features shaped by effects of winds was captured by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Jan. 4, 2015. The spacecraft has been orbiting Mars sinc...
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This view of Martian surface features shaped by effects of winds was captured by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Jan. 4, 2015. The spacecraft has been orbiting Mars since March 2006. On Feb. 7, 2015, it completed its 40,000th orbit around Mars.
Yardangs in Arsinoes Chaos, Mars
The Mars Climate Sounder, an instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter designed to monitor daily changes in the global atmosphere of Mars, made its first observations of Mars on March 24, 2006.
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First Data from Mars Climate Sounder
First Data from Mars Climate Sounder
A towering dust devil, casts a serpentine shadow over the Martian surface in this image acquired by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbi...
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A towering dust devil, casts a serpentine shadow over the Martian surface in this image acquired by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The Serpent Dust Devil of Mars
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been on the western rim of Endeavour Crater in Meridiani Planum for about two years.
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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been on the western rim of Endeavour Crater in Meridiani Planum for about two years.
Color View From Orbit Showing Opportunity in 'Botany Bay' (Unannotated)
This image covers a location that has been imaged several times to look for changes in gullies.
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This image covers a location that has been imaged several times to look for changes in gullies.
Activity in Martian Gully
Mars has extremely large temperature changes from winter to summer compared to the Earth. It gets cold enough to freeze carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere during the winter, but this ice is unsta...
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Mars has extremely large temperature changes from winter to summer compared to the Earth. It gets cold enough to freeze carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere during the winter, but this ice is unstable when the warmer summer arrives and forces it to sublimate (transform directly back into a gas) away.
Carbon Dioxide Ice in the Late Summer
Sand dunes are among the most widespread aeolian features present on Mars. Their spatial distribution and morphology are sensitive to subtle shifts in wind circulation patterns and wind strengths. ...
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Sand dunes are among the most widespread aeolian features present on Mars.
Millipedes of Mars
These images show a 256 x 256 pixel patch of sky at the range to the comet of 8 million miles and when the solar phase angle is 47 degrees.
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These images show a 256 x 256 pixel patch of sky at the range to the comet of 8 million miles and when the solar phase angle is 47 degrees.
First HiRISE Images of Comet ISON
This area of Mars is shaped by lava flows from volcanic eruptions.
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This area of Mars has a few gray craters, with white/light material surrounding it.
Flow and Flow Features in Amazonis Planitia
This graphic maps locations of the sites where NASA's Curiosity Mars rover collected its first 19 rock or soil samples for laboratory analysis inside the vehicle. It also presents images of the dri...
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This graphic maps locations of the sites where NASA's Curiosity Mars rover collected its first 19 rock or soil samples for laboratory analysis inside the vehicle. It also presents images of the drilled holes where 15 rock-powder samples were acquired, most recently at "Sebina," on Oct. 20, 2016.
Curiosity's Rock or Soil Sampling Sites on Mars, Through November 2016
Seen are six views of the Nili Fossae region of Mars captured by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, or CRISM, one of the instruments aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter...
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This image shows six views of the Nili Fossae region of Mars captured by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, or CRISM..
Six Views of Nili Fossae, as Seen by MRO's CRISM
This map shows the frequency of carbon dioxide frost's presence at sunrise on Mars, as a percentage of days year-round. Carbon dioxide ice more often covers the ground at night in some mid-latitude...
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This map shows the frequency of carbon dioxide frost's presence at sunrise on Mars, as a percentage of days year-round. Carbon dioxide ice more often covers the ground at night in some mid-latitude regions than in polar regions, where it is generally absent for much of summer and fall.
Where on Mars Does Carbon Dioxide Frost Form Often?
This series of images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter successively zooms into "spider" features -- or channels carved in the surface in radial patterns -- in the south polar region of Mars.
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This series of images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter successively zooms into "spider" features -- or channels carved in the surface in radial patterns -- in the south polar region of Mars.
Volunteers Help Decide Where to Point Mars Camera
This image acquired on November 30, 2018 by NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows a complex crater, where we see bedrock in several locations from different depths in the crust.
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This image acquired on November 30, 2018 by NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows a complex crater, where we see bedrock in several locations from different depths in the crust.
Exposing the Rock in Impact Craters
This image shows blocks of bright, layered rock embedded in darker material that are thought to have been deposited by a giant flood that occurred when Uzboi Valles breached the rim of Holden Crater.
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This image shows blocks of bright, layered rock embedded in darker material that are thought to have been deposited by a giant flood that occurred when Uzboi Valles breached the rim of Holden Crater.
Flood-Emplaced Blocks in Holden Crater
Deposits on the floor of Palos Crater
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Deposits on the floor of Palos Crater
Deposits on the floor of Palos Crater
This image contrasts gullies and recurring warm-season slope flows appearing in the same crater, in the middle southern latitudes of Mars.
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This image contrasts gullies and recurring warm-season slope flows appearing in the same crater, in the middle southern latitudes of Mars.
Gullies and Newly Identified Flow Features in Same Mars Crater (Arrows)
Researchers have found deposits of impact glass preserved in Martian craters, including Alga Crater, shown here.
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Colorful image showing impact glass distribution on a Martian crater. These glass deposits are scattered with areas of green showing more glass versus other areas in blue.
Spectral Signals Indicating Impact Glass on Mars
The bright feature in this image might be the parachute from a 1971 Soviet Mars lander named Mars 3. The image was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's...
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The bright feature in this image might be the parachute from a 1971 Soviet Mars lander named Mars 3. The image was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Possible Parachute From 1971 Soviet Mars Lander
Wrinkle Ridge, Solis Planum
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Wrinkle Ridge, Solis Planum
Wrinkle Ridge, Solis Planum
NASA's Opportunity Mars rover, working on Mars since January 2004, passed marathon distance in total driving on March 24, 2015. This map shows the rover's entire traverse from landing to that point.
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NASA's Opportunity Mars rover, working on Mars since January 2004, passed marathon distance in total driving on March 24, 2015. This map shows the rover's entire traverse from landing to that point.
Opportunity Rover's Full Marathon-Length Traverse

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