A brand new NASA image provides at a breathtaking look at a recently-creates Mars crater.
Space rocks often smash into the surface of Mars, leaving up to 200 craters per year; but few leave such a stunning scar, a NASA news release reported.
The image, taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, depicts a crater believed to be 100 feet (30 meters) in diameter.
The crater occurred between imaging by the orbiter's Context Camera in the area; once in July 2010 and then in May 2012. The impact that created the crater was so strong it threw debris (called ejects) as far as 9.3 miles (15 kilometers).
"Because the terrain where the crater formed is dusty, the fresh crater appears blue in the enhanced color of the image, due to removal of the reddish dust in that area," a NASA news release reported.
The Mars crater is located at 3.7 degrees north latitude, 53.4 degrees east longitude.
"HiRISE is one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Science Laboratory projects for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington," the news release reported.
HiRISE employs visible wavelengths, meaning it operates similarly to a human eye, NASA reported. This technique allows it to capture Mars images with never-before-seen clarity. The device will allow researchers to study Mars' morphology (surface structure) in a way that has never been possible in the past.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which was launched August 12, 2005, is working to uncover if water ever existed on Mars and if it was there long enough to sustain life.
